Commentary
Frontier: TV, All the Time
- by David Kaplan , February 28, 2005
But when Greg Hilz mentions Warhol's famous dictum, that's exactly what he means. Hilz is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Broadcast ITV (BITV), a company he founded two years ago.
Last November, BITV opened its first sales and demonstration office in Washington D.C., across from the United States Capitol Building. The office, designed to serve as BITV's political account sales office for the East Coast, was set up to enable clients connected with politics to get their message out anywhere in the world.
"I think we're at the point where all sides of the interactive media game have become somewhat lethargic, and what people are looking for is that human interaction, something that goes beyond video conferencing," Hilz says. "What's unique about BITV, and why we felt this would be particularly potent for Washington, is that we stepped into this space with the vision and the know-how and technologies, creating what we believe is the best in-network, live video communication."
BITV entered into a co-marketing agreement with Van Scoyoc, one of Washington's largest private political lobbying firms to target its consumer marketing efforts.
Political organizations and candidates are increasingly embracing Internet communication strategies. BITV builds on this trend by adding a live, full motion dimension, as well as in-person interactive broadcasts for desktop audiences. Audiences need only an Internet connection to participate with the broadcasts anywhere in the world. "A lot of people, when we first started, didn't think that broadband would surpass cable connectivity," he says. "But this is the wave of the future. It's the future right now. For example, Google launched a live video-search engine. There's a significant demand for this kind of service. This is also a system that says, I don't have to buy technology or learn something overly technical and difficult,'" Hilz explains.
