• by Paul Gough , September 15, 2003

After a number of fits and false starts surrounding promising new technologies like video-on-demand and high definition television, interactive television (ITV) finally appears poised to pop within the next year, according to a new consumer research study.

While other ITV applications haven't generated the headlines commanded by digital video recorders, VOD and HDTV, they have slowly and quietly been making strides, according to the report from market researcher BrightLine Partners.

ITV enhanced programming is being done on both broadcast and cable, noted Jacqueline Corbelli, co-CEO of BrightLine. ABC, for example, has taken a lead through its enhanced TV division, providing a single-screen platform for its four-game College Bowl Series and using interactivity in the American Music Awards and the Academy Awards.

Discovery Channel's content, meanwhile, is already interactively enhanced - including advertising - for those whose televisions can view them; some advertiser-embedded content is done for The Learning Channel, including "Monster Garage," "Trading Spaces" and "Junkyard Wars." TechTV and Game Show Network also offer interactive programming.

Corbelli said interactive TV can help rescue live television from becoming irrelevant in an era of time shifting. And interactive TV can feed into advertisers' desires to be more engaged in the brand and show.

"I think what you're seeing is this response of programmers to this growing need to persuade or reassure advertisers that television, and live television, is still an effective vehicle," Corbelli said.

Brands using interactive TV include Ford, Chrysler, Lexus, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, P&G, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Wal-Mart.

"The in-program enhancements are bringing the advertising deeper into the programming itself," said Rob Aksman, analyst at BrightLine Partners and co- author of the study with Corbelli.

Forty million U.S. households are now served by either digital cable or satellite, the level of service that is required to use interactive TV. The study finds that more than 7 million homes have access to enhanced programming, a jump from about 100,000 four years ago. With two other developments - Dish Network's plans to unveil interactive commercials to more than five million subscribers using OpenTV technology and if News Corp.'s bid to buy DirecTV is successful - BrightLine Partners said interactivity could be in 15 million households by the end of 2004.