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Enhanced TV Applications Video Vault
Enhanced TV is now seen as the next big opportunity to drive mass market audiences to interact with their televisions, to press the "red button" and drive up revenues per subscriber.
It is hoped that presenters or promos will provide a much more effective incentive to the audience to participate with their remote controls.
However as iTV genres go, Enhanced TV is very, very new. It would appear that good enhanced TV requires meaningful co-operation with the digital TV platforms, the TV channels and the programme makers and remains the most immature of iTV genres.
The examples below clearly illustrate the technical and logistical challenges of providing valuable supporting information whilst not detracting from the main programme narrative. One of the biggest challenges facing broadcasters is how to integrate iTV production into the main production cycle. Another major issue is how to reliably synchronise interactive elements with the linear programme.
UK
Hells Kitchen on ITV1 (OpenTV) (10 Mb)
ITV1's new nightly reality TV
series Hells Kitchen has just completed its two week
run.
Produced by the team behind 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out
Of Here!', the show followed 10 celebrities working as
chefs in a new , exclusive London restaurant run by
Gordon Ramsay.
The entertainment factors in the show include the triple
Michelin-starred chef's liberal use of four-letter words
as cameras are trained on the novice cooks.
The interactive features of the programme allowed viewers
to enter a competition draw to win a table at the
restaurant and also vote for their favourite celebrities,
influencing the elimination process.
More Stills
Hells
Kitchen 1
Hells Kitchen 2
Hells Kitchen 3
Hells Kitchen 4
Hells Kitchen 5
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to obtain a High-Resolution DVD of this and other
interactive TV applications.
Australia
Fat Cow Motel on Austar (OpenTV) (5.5 Mb)
In 2003, Australian broadcaster
ABC broadcast 'Fat Cow Motel' an interactive comedy,
mystery series produced by Brisbane based 'Hoodlum
Entertainment'.
Each episode of the 13-part drama ends with a cliffhanger
mystery that the audience can solve for themselves by
paying close attention during the programme or by looking
for additional clues when interacting with the show
online, via email, SMS, voicemail, or via interactive
TV.
In fact, the more platforms the viewer uses to interact
with the show, the more clues they receive.
For those fortunate enough to subscribe to Austar can
benefit from a specially developed interactive TV
application built in OpenTV which has been created to
accompany the show with its own exclusive content.
By visiting the Fat Cow Motel website http://www.fatcowmotel.com.au , viewers could obtain
additional clues by reading the local newspaper 'The Fat
Cow Bugle' or by getting involved in the characters'
lives and intercepting their email, voicemail and
guest-book entries.
Viewers could also register to have SMS messages
delivered to their mobile phone and receive messages that
regular TV viewers don't see.
The storyline begins
with iconic rock legend Rory Toogood, who was supposedly
found dead in a hotel room bathtub in Mason City, Iowa,
US, in January 1976. leaving behind legions of distraught
fans. However to everyone's surprise he reappears, and
dies again, in room 13 of the Fat Cow Motel, but not
before making a farewell video for his fans.
Fans from around the globe descend on the town, and the
Fat Cow Motel in particular, providing welcome revenue
for its owner, But then suspicious journalist Jack Green
starts to sniff around and the plot thickens.
There are 13 episodes of the series, but two versions of
the 13th series finale were filmed and viewers were able
to vote online and via SMS how they wanted the series to
end.
ABC's Fat Cow Motel website has become the most visited
television related-website in the seven-year history of
ABC Online, receiving a record 1,182,570 page impressions
in the second week the program went to air.
UK
Disney Active Portal on Sky Digital (OpenTV) (10Mb)
Dropping its original enhanced TV
portal, Disney Channel UK has re-launched its
interactivity with a new ETV service, this time created
for Sky's WTVML browser, developed by Sky Interactive and
supported by a comprehensive management and scheduling
system from Tamblin.
According to Disney the new application is a major step
forward from their previous solution and offers Disney a
greater deal of flexibility and control of their
interactivity in terms of design and dynamic update.
The new application will also empower kids giving them
the opportunity to participate in shows whilst still
being able to watch the action on screen. Viewers will be
able to get their names on air during the any of the
programmes, have e-mails posted straight away and enter
competitions as they are announced all through their Sky
remote control.
Using Tamblin's i-ZoneTV product (a dynamic publishing,
management solution) Disney can now schedule updates of
content, change fonts, background and design in
synchronicity with the programme schedule without the
need to 'carefully plan a 'content churn' 2-3 weeks in
advance' which was the case when dealing with OpenTV code
directly.
The design of the new application is bright, colourful
and kid friendly and by making the move to a browser and
content management based architecture, Disney have the
opportunity to creatively manage their interactive
services, to change features and to update their
interactive content on the fly.
There are always going to be trade offs when moving from
highly optimised custom code to a browser type
architecture and this is visible when under detailed
scrutiny. It does take a while for rich content such as
images and other overlays to appear in the application
but this is not a problem unique to Disney.
According to Robert Markham, New Media Manager for Walt
Disney Television International, the load times of the
application are 'not as quick as we would have hoped.'
however Markham believes that the delivery of this new
ETV service has been a major challenge for everyone
involved and that their requirements for rich content and
functionality have pushed the capability of the
microbrowser more than any other broadcaster using the
solution.
What perhaps also isn't clear to the wider interactive TV
industry is that Sky's microbrowser is constantly
changing / improving product that already has gone
through several different versions. Sky's current browser
version is 6 and version 7 will be available soon with
even more improved functionality.
Sky's microbrowser solution is more comfortable providing
text based or t-commerce services where a live, online
connection to a server is critical, however Sky are
actively developing the product so that it can be used
more widely for enhanced television. Less need for
testing means applications can be launched much faster,
however there are many people in the interactive TV
industry who argue that the microbrowser is entirely
unsuitable for enhanced TV.
Markham also raises the issue of second generation boxes.
Some of Sky's oldest Digiboxes, known as TP2's, clearly
struggle to load complex applications such as those based
on the microbrowser and this is an issue that needs to be
addressed.
Markham believes that developers can't keep making
applications for the lowest common denominator boxes ,
dragging down functionality
However the re-launch has clearly benefited Disney. The
application which launched on September 3rd has already
received more than 4 times the normal amount of
connection per day.
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Pop Idol on ITV1 (OpenTV) (7.5 Mb)
Pop Idol illustrates how easily
the core programming of the UK's main commercial
broadcaster, ITV, can lend itself to interactivity.
Despite
supporting the Pop Idol programme with a simple and
fast-loading application that enables viewers to gossip
around the show and participate in the vote on Saturday
nights, ITV’s execution of the application does seem
to lack something in terms of its creativity and
design.
By coming to the market later than other channels, ITV
have a great opportunity to differentiate themselves and
showcase some great applications, however this Pop Idol
application is a little disappointing.
This starts from the very entry point. The rectangular Press Red for Pop Idol ‘call-to-action’ lacks branding (in stark contrast to the branded and rounded call to action of the BBC's Fame Academy interactive icon) and clearly does little to combat the growing ‘Red Button Fatigue’ that is has been noted by many in the industry.
The application performs
excellently, despite the MPEG background being a little
too ‘busy’ for my own personal liking.
Looking at navigation, the colour coded menu options at the bottom of the screen should be much bolder so that viewers can clearly see that the colour keys are active and can assist viewers in navigating around the application.
However,
the most disappointing feature of the Pop Idol
application is the Nestle sponsored ‘ChocIdols’
section. 
This area invites the viewer to
‘Press (Yellow) now to join the search for the
nation’s ‘ChocIdols’, taking them to a
separate area where they can vote at 25 pence for their
favourite ‘ChocIdol’ characters e.g.
‘Nestle Double Cream’, ‘Mint Aero’,
‘Kit Kat Chunky’ etc. and enter a draw for Pop
Idol tour tickets.
Disregarding the value of the prize draw, it is disappointing to see that ITV haven’t really had the time to think creatively about how to integrate their sponsor into the application.
Its pretty clear that
instead, ITV have chosen to reuse the same creative
concept with Nestle that they provided to Procter &
Gamble earlier this year as part of the Brit
Awards.
The Brit Awards application also took viewers off to a
separate area which allowed them to browse ‘Pringle
Pop Stars’ characters and ITV's has not moved
forward significantly.
Clearly, Nestle products
are not the same as P&G’s, but to use virtually
the same creative idea for Nestle is surely a disservice
to both companies?
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High-Resolution DVD of this and other interactive TV
applications.
UK
David Blaine interactive on Sky
Digital (OpenTV)
(4.5 Mb)
Magician and performance artist
David Blaine's latest challenge 'David Blaine: Above the
Below' is being featured on Sky digital as a 24/7
interactive service.
The stunt involves Blaine spending more than 6 weeks in
solitary confinement in a clear-plexi glass box supsended
above the River Thames surviving on just water alone.
The glass box is just seven feet deep, seven feet long
and three feet wide, where he aims to remain for 44 days.
He will have no food, no communication and no
distractions of any kind. He will have to exist with a
tube feeding him water and a waste tube to urinate.
The application accessible from a branded call-to-action
on Sky One provides viewers with partial or full-screen
streaming coverage of the event. The application also
allows viewers to enter a competition to win £500 and
vote on whether they think that Blaine is an illusionist
or a master of endurance.
The stunt follows in the tradition of Blaine’s
unique hybrid of endurance and performance art, as
witnessed in last year’s ‘Vertigo’ stunt -
where he stood atop a 100ft high pole in New York for 35
hours and ‘Frozen in Time’, where he encased
himself in six tons of ice for three days. Blaine, dubbed
the ‘Modern Day Houdini’, first caught the
public eye with his startling and original ‘street
magic’ in his native New York.
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Bloomberg eTV service on Sky Digital (OpenTV) (9 Mb)
After many years of planning and
several months of development, Bloomberg has finally
launched an interactive service on digital satellite in
the UK. Whilst other European digital operators such as
Stream in Italy and CSD Spain already offer interactive
financial services, this is one of the first to be part
of an enhanced broadcast.
This is not Bloomberg's first foray into interactive TV.
A UK cable service, developed for the Liberate platform
has been available for a number of years, however this
service was heavily influenced by Bloomberg's web
development teams in the US and certainly has a
TV-Internet feel about it. This new OpenTV application,
developed by NDS goes much further than the Liberate
service and it would seem that the wait for the
application has been worthwhile.
The enhanced service integrates with Bloomberg's
traditional on-air design and replaces the burnt-in data
(bloomberg's various tickers etc.) with personalised
content. The idea of 'personalisation' is not just
limited to how the viewer filters through the interactive
data that is being broadcast to the application (such as
indices and news), but by making a return path
connection, the viewer can create a personal portfolio of
shares for a modem call costing 25 pence, which can then
be displayed as a personal ticker.
The application includes a broad variety of financial
information and services including a markets section
which offers price information on UK, Europe and World
markets including the FTSE, Dow Jones, CAC40, Nikkei, and
Dax. The service also allows the viewer to call up
graphical charts which plot the movements of the markets
over a day, over a week or a 52 week period.
The service also includes market indices where viewers
can choose to view Most Active Stocks, Biggest Risers and
Biggest Fallers. News is also an important feature
of this interactive service and viewers can choose from
news stories in five different categories including UK
Business, World Business, Technology, Sports and
Government.
Interaction with the Bloomberg channel itself has also
been incorporated as another major feature of the
application with viewers able to participate in votes
when broadcast. They can also choose to email any
comments or questions on the day’s stories or market
movements. Other features of the application include a
Currency Calculator covering 18 major currencies.
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
Greece
Big Brother 'The Wall' on NOVA (OpenTV) (4.4 Mb)
This
interactive application on Greek satellite platform NOVA
supports the Big Brother 'The Wall' reality TV show
broadcast on terrestrial network ANT1.
Viewers
with Nova in Greece can switch to channel 69 and access a
23h per day feed from the Big Brother house - (Live Mix1)
which includes a text chat service. By pressing OK,
the viewer can then switch to the application which
features a mosaic channel with the second live feed (Live
Mix2) in the larger window whilst the smaller window
shows Live Mix1.
Once in the application viewers can press EXIT on their
remotes to return to full-screen Live Mix1 or use the
numeric keys on their remote to access a variety of
additional information including
(1) CV's,
browse-able using the arrow keys which includes each
participant's Photo / Name / Town of origin / Age /
Height / Marital status / Occupation / Zodiac sign /
Hobbies and Personality.
(2) allows the viewer to access statistics on the
popularity of each participant expressed as a percentage
(3) gives details of how to Vote for who should leave the game including the name of the nominees, the premium rate phone number or SMS code to dial.
Finally
pressing (4) brings up the rules of the game.
In addition the application includes a ticker at the
bottom of the screen which presents the latest news from
the game and which is continuously updated throughout the
day.
More Info
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Test the Nation 2003 (OpenTV) (9Mb)
3rd
May 2004 saw the BBC’s latest “Test the Nation
– The National IQ Test”.
Attracting over 9 million viewers in 2002, the show’s format remains the same, and once again, has made use of their very simple but effective interactive application templates.
These allow Sky Digital and Digital Terrestrial viewers to participate in the show simultaneously using their remote controls to answer each question using one of the four corresponding colour keys on their remotes.
The simplicity of the application is a key factor in its success. Both the outward design and functionality of the application might appear to be extremely basic, but the fact is that a lot more is happening ‘under the bonnet’ than you might expect. Most notably, unlike many interactive play-along shows, this show is actually broadcast live. Correct synchronisation of the questions is absolutely key as viewers only have 25 seconds to answer each of them, and can often make or change their answers in the last few seconds.
After
completing all 70 questions, the interactive application
automatically totals up the viewer’s correct answers
and presents them on screen including results for each
question category.
As previously, viewers could also take the test online
via the web or simply calculating their own scores using
a pen and paper.
More information can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
UK
I'm a Celebrity! (OpenTV) (6Mb)
This
interactive voting application supports the
‘I’m a Celebrity - Get me out of Here!’
reality TV show that recently commenced its new series in
May 2003.
Produced by Granada Interactive using Emuse’s ‘Modelstream’ tool, the application allows Sky Digital viewers to choose which celebrity takes the ‘Bush Tucker Trail’ challenge and participate in other votes related to the show.
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Sky
Music Channels (OpenTV)
Mid April 2003 finally saw the
launch of Sky's much talked about music channel offering,
specifically designed to compete with the existing music
channel offerings of EMAP (The Box, KISS etc.) and
MTV’s MTV UK, MTV Dance, MTV Hits, M2 TMF etc.
Borrowing heavily from the 'The Box' model, the three new
channels ‘Scuzz’, ‘Flaunt’ and
‘The Amp’ have launched with their own
individual lifestyle identities and demographic target.
Each
channel has already launched their own individual
websites and interactive services. The interactive
television services are broadly very similar and are all
using Sky’s WTVML micro-browser application.
'Scuzz' ( http://www.scuzz.tv ) (See
Video of Scuzz Active Here! 5.9 Mb) is a rock channel aimed at
15-19-year-old males and features artists such as Foo
Fighters. 'Flaunt' ( http://www.flaunt.tv ) (See Video of Flaunt
Active Here! 8.3 Mb)
has a young female demographic
of 13-16 with a mix of music from artists such as Ms
Dynamite, Justin Timberlake and Pink with additional
content on fashion, celebrities and gossip whilst
‘The Amp' http://www.theamp.tv ) will target a more
mature male music demographic of men 25-29 with
groups such the likes of Oasis, Massive Attack and
Coldplay.
All 3 channels allow the viewer to 'vote' for their
chosen video using the remote for a cost of 50 pence.
(The Box and other EMAP channels currently require
viewers to pick up the telephone and make a premium rate
call to request their track.)
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to obtain a High-Resolution DVD of this and other
interactive TV applications.
UK
The Murder Game (OpenTV) (10 Mb)
The BBC's The Murder Game series commenced on
Saturday 30th March on BBC One, with an associated and
very comprehensive interactive service that is available
to Sky Digital homes from 21.00 - 02.30 daily via the Red
button.
The programme focusses on 10 real people try to solve a fictional murder. The ten chosen investigators, chosen out of 100,000 applicants, must find out who the murderer is under the close scrutiny of the cameras.
The Murder Game Interactive lets viewers get inside the minds of the team solving the mystery and lets you play the part of detective.
The service allows the viewer to
catch up on any clues they may have missed, view
exclusive interviews with eliminated investigators, see
news reports from Blackwater and files on the
investigators and murder suspects.
There are
four main areas to the application:
BLACKWATER TV (Red button)
This area consists of the latest ‘Killer Clue’
and the exit interview (‘The Life After’) of
the investigator who is killed that week. There will also
be repeats of The Murder Game for those who want to
refresh their memories. There will also be exclusive news
reports from the village.
REACT
(Green button) Each week viewers can vote on who they
think is the killer and who they believe will win The
Murder Game. There is also an area to send and read
messages about the show. The vote results will be updated
each week and displayed in the Blackwater TV service.
INVESTIGATORS (Yellow button) The Chief Detective, who is
leading the investigation, Bob Taylor, will give his
reactions and opinions in exclusive footage which will be
updated weekly. There are also profiles on the
investigators and the Chief’s rating on how he
thinks they are coping.
Fnally, 'CASE FILE' (Blue button) has four elements: Evidence - clues from each show, updated as the case progresses. Murder Chart - highlighting the locations, relationships of suspects and evidence gathered. Case Profiles - detailed information on the victims and suspects. Timeline - a weekly update of everybody’s movements.
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interactive TV applications.
UK
MTV UK 'Peep' Multi-Stream (OpenTV) (2.3 Mb)
By
pressing the red button when the 'Peep' call-to-action
appears, viewers can explore 4 separate video feeds
making use of a similar template to the original Sky News
Active, Big Brother and Star Ticket applications.
As
with previous multi-stream applications, video windows
are selected using the arrow keys and pressing select
enlarges the chosen stream from 1/16 - to 1/4 screen
video.
The
graphic design and colour scheme of the service is
particularly appealing and simple features like including
the label of the video stream in the highlight box
distinguishes it from other applications of this type.
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Living TV Active (OpenTV) (3.7 Mb)
Flextech's
LivingTV has launched a new interactive portal to
accompany its broadcasts on Sky Digital. The interactive
portal provides a comprehensive range of services
including horoscopes, competitions and even psychic
readings.
The core horoscope service is attractive, easy to use and
also free - although extended forecasts are available via
calling a premium rate telephony number at 60 pence per
minute. The service also offers a 'Love Match' service
where viewers can test their compatibility with their
partner by comparing star signs. This requires the box to
dial up to retrieve the content with a call charge of
25p.
Created by Living's parent Flextech working in
association with developer DITG, the portal has an
attractive design, however the same circular button
design and colour scheme is used across all the different
services in the portal making them a little hard to
distinguish. The design and colour scheme might be suited
to Horoscopes, but it isn't really suited to the
competition that is also included in this portal.
Once in the service, viewers can continue to watch their
favourite programmes whilst interacting courtesy of a
video window in the top right hand part of the screen,
however the text window below the video is far too small,
this is a pity, since this is where the main content is
presented. In all honesty its barely enough for a couple
of sentences meaning that the viewer has to constantly
scroll through the text, this is annoying and makes it
difficult to read at a normal rhythm.
Also, unusually for an application these days even simple
text content takes quite a while to load, which would
suggest either limited available bandwidth to carousel
the data often enough, or poor performance of DITG's
X-Browser. Since this is the first version of this
application, its likely these issues will be corrected
over time but it is noticeable.
Another noticeable feature of the application is the
comprehensive viewer data it captures when viewers enter
the competition. Although answering the multiple choice
question is fairly simple, the viewer is then required to
provide their name, title, date of birth, sex and
address. Fortunately viewers are not required to enter
their full address, only their postcode and house number,
but the drawn out data entry is compounded by the way the
application expects some data to be entered. Unlike most
application, viewers cannot directly enter their date of
birth using their remote number keys, but instead are
required to toggle numbers using the up and down keys on
the Sky remote. This actually slows down the process -
and differs to the design of most other applications on
the Sky platform.
LivingTV has found ratings success in paranormal based
content and it is interesting that the service contains
the ability for viewers to obtain psychic readings with a
variety of testimonies from viewers on the value of the
service. The psychics are profiled on screen, and viewers
can either book a psychic for a specified time and set a
text alert which lets them know when their chosen psychic
is available, or they can call the first one available at
a charge of £1.50 per minute.
More Stills
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interactive TV applications.
UK
Test the Nation - National
Relationship Test (OpenTV) (10Mb)
The BBC's UK broadcast of another programme in
the Test the Nation series. – ‘The National
Relationship Test’ ran on 22nd March 2003.
The show looked at Relationships, and tested our ability to manage them. The 50-question test covered all aspects of relationships. An audience made up of six groups - single men, single women, couples, silver-wedding couples, police, nurses and 8 celebrities competed in the studio. The presenters were assisted by a panel of relationship experts, including Dr Duncan Cramer (who devised the test), Relate Counsellor, Julia Cole and the BBC’s ‘Fame Academy’ Tutor Jeremy Milnes.
Viewers
could take part simply using pen and paper, via a
scorecard printed in the national press or via the
interactive enhancement to the show (featured here) the
application stored the viewer's responses as they
answered each question using the remote colour keys and
then gave them their score and advice at the end of the
first part of the show.
The web version remains available until 11th April at http://www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation , so far over 69,000 have
taken the online test.
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interactive TV applications.
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