• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, September 18, 2007

Although interactive television trial deployment has ramped up over the last couple of years, particularly through ad-supported video-on-demand and addressability technology deployments, in my opinion the major impediment toward gaining traction with the advertising community has been the lack of availability of valuable information pertaining to these trials. Little information is shared. All is hidden under the respectable cloak of "proprietary." Both advertisers and trial deployers -- whether technologists, systems operators (cable, satellite) --are guilty of nondisclosure, which has resulted in part in the stultification of the development and support of advertising applications in the interactive TV sector. And therefore, has dramatically stifled the potential growth for consumer acceptance.

I'm not asking for every detail of a trial from the advertiser's playbook, nor encouraging the systems operator's promiscuous utilization of the results. Privacy should be respected -particularly when someone else if picking up the tab. But someone, particularly the systems operators and/or the technologists, should be able to provide directional learning without naming names.

It is my contention that if more information was shared among the principal participants in the interactive TV and televisual sectors -- advertisers, advertising agencies, technology companies, pay TV operators and content providers -- in a collaborative environment, each contributing their expertise to the process, rather than as secular keepers of the holy grail, all players in this arena would benefit. 'Nough said.

No, not enough said.