Article:
Creating iTV Content Today
June 26, 2002
While interactive television (iTV) has flourished in Britain and other European states for the last decade, the American marketplace has yet to see a comprehensive, successful foray into the iTV space. Cable vendors and software providers have been largely unable to find a cost-efficient, standards-compliant, and universally recognized medium for delivering iTV content to the 65+ million cable subscribers in the US.1 Ironically, the industry best situated to deliver iTV to Americans are not the cable and TV companies, but rather the video game console creators, using their ubiquitous boxes to handle video playback, interactivity, and commerce.
Sony and Microsoft both have worked to bill their latest devices as home entertainment products, well beyond the traditional scope of a gaming device. Out of the box, Sony's unit can play DVD movies and CD audio as well as the games designed for the PlayStation unit. With such options, the PlayStation 2 (and Microsoft's XBox, after purchasing a $30 DVD playback kit) has become a hit with consumers. As of May 2002, over 30 million Playstation 2 units have been sold (nearly half the market of cable subscribers).2
A feature coming to the Playstation 2 (PS2) in August, however, will extend the use of the device beyond DVD, CD, and game playback. With the addition of the Sony Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2, PS2 users will be able to connect their devices to their existing modem connection to play other users online. Suddenly, console gaming will be able to compete with PC gaming in terms of multiplayer and Internet connectivity capabilities.
A hidden boon to this addition, though, is the ability to use the device's Internet connectivity to deliver iTV services. By sending MPEG4 content (a high-quality video stream with very small file size) through an interactive HTML layer via a secure and exclusive channel, content providers can begin marketing iTV services to a large (and very "wired") audience. Almost instantaneously, millions of existing devices in homes across the US will become capable of serving up and charging for iTV content. The long dreamed of US iTV rollout could become a reality in a short time span but without cable companies acting as the content broker.
How It Works
Both the Sony and Microsoft units have the ability to display Web content with the use of third-party software. Games and software distributed in each of their proprietary formats can have the ability to access the devices' system-level networking libraries, which then allow Internet access when the units are connected to an Internet connection. As the Web-display features are not provided on a system level, software developers can provide any number of means to access the Web on a software level.
This means that a variety of browsers, kiosks, and special run-time environments are possible, which in turn means that developers can create custom (or standards-based) methods of accessing online content. By distributing this software to console consumers, a company could provide a gateway to their content. In the case of iTV, this means the viewing software can act as both the receiver and interaction device. Upon user request, the software can retrieve an online document (such as an HTML, Flash, or XML file). In turn, this document, containing a series of interactive hooks programmed to accept the device's controller input rather than keyboard or mouse input, requests a video stream. At times determined by the content provider, additional content can be delivered to the user, whether beckoning for interaction or providing supplemental information.
To the end user, this experience can appear nearly the same as any other PlayStation 2 experience. Video content will be playing on screen, and through the use of the controller, additional functionality can be accessed. Users, already familiar with using the controller to interact with content displayed on the television, will simply be using the PS2 to access content stored outside of their machines
What Does This Require
For the recipient of iTV content, four3 elements are required: 1) a television, 2) a gaming console (such as the PS2 or Xbox), 3) an existing broadband connection (such as DSL or cable), and 4) a piece of software to facilitate accessing the Internet. With these elements in place, a console user will be able to view iTV content without a hitch.
As for developers of iTV content, two components are necessary. First is the software to allow users to get online and retrieve your content. Second (and most obviously) is the content; the content, however, is dependent on the software. If the software developed to browse Internet content uses Apple's QuickTime to handle video playback, the content can not be served as RealVideo or Windows Media formats.
The content provider's software must take into consideration all the potential uses of interactive television they want to deliver. As software is delivered via write-protected discs, there is not an easy method of upgrading a user's viewing software (short of delivering an updated disc). Thus, an extensible browser (such as Mozilla) combined with a wide range of plug-ins (such as QuickTime, Flash, and SVG Viewer) can be used to deliver a wide number of content solutions.
As console users do not use their device in the same manner as they use a personal computer, the software must be designed to reflect their limited input options: a game controller has somewhere around 10 buttons plus two multi-directional controls, whereas a personal computer often has a 104-button keyboard and a multi-directional mouse. Without a keyboard, users will not be able to easily enter URLs to access Web content. Thus, the software must be designed to automatically lead a viewer to a determined location where simple selection can allow for a user's determined content.
By customizing existing Web software packages for operation within the console environment, developers can ensure that rich interaction devices can be brought into the iTV realm.
Real World Possibilities
As an example of the PS2's iTV ability, consider ABC wanting to deliver a series of its game shows as iTV content across the PS2 at the same time as the shows airing on ABC. PS2 users, upon inserting the ABC software disc in their console, will automatically arrive at a special ABC/PS2 site. At this site, a user can log-in using their ABC ID (freely available and quick to generate through a two-step process) and then choose from several options (likely including an interactive program schedule to encourage future return visits). Most visible, of course, will be the current show.
For this example, the featured show is Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, and selecting this option displays the show in a large portion of the TV screen. (The video will be streamed live from the ABC servers alongside their broadcast stream.) Additional screen real estate can be used to display a user's personal score, as well as other online PS2 players' scores. Using the PS2's controller, users can answer questions alongside the actual broadcast participants, scoring points that are being tracked according to their ABC ID. Statistics are sent out alongside the video stream, allowing users to compare their knowledge to both broadcast and PS2 viewers. Depending on both ABC's generosity and the amount of information gleaned in the ID signup process, PS2 viewers may be awarded prizes based upon their scores. Regis may even announce the PS2 players' results on-air, thus encouraging broadcast viewers to consider purchasing a PS2.
As another example, consider a content aggregator such as Atom Films. Rather than acting as content producer *and* hawker, Atom acts solely as a hawker of other's content. Viewers come to Atom knowing they will find a wide range of content in numerous, easily-searchable genres.
If Atom were to partner with Microsoft's XBox Live service (Microsoft's mandated ISP for using the XBox over the Internet), it could deliver its software specifications to all its content contributors. Any content producer could then create their content according to Atom/XBox's technical specifications and distribute their work through Atom's iTV "portal," accessible off the XBox Live startup screen. Whereas content providers wouldn't control a user's initial access to the content (as they would be coming through Atom's doorway), user's would not be relegated to inserting a new software disc for every "channel" of iTV (as they would need to using the previous example).
Regardless of the content possibilities, though, these ideas are made accessible using traditional Web development technologies via the gaming consoles of today. By taking advantage of the unit's computing power, its dependence on a television screen, and its highly-connected user base, such a gaming console can provide a very attractive gateway to iTV for both consumers and content providers.
Potential Advantages
As a final note, one major upside to delivering iTV content over the Internet is the breadth of content possible. In our traditional TV experience, the cable company determines which channels it will offer its subscribers as possible content providers. With an IP delivery system, however, there is no one determining which channels you can flip through; you are only bound to the content each software developer makes accessible to you.
Conversely, as the cable company does not dictate what content is exclusively shown over Internet, anyone with their own means can create content. Similar to the boom in the Web sector, a number of independent and entrepreneurial-minded companies could begin producing engaging content (and software) of their own. Pilots could be tested, concepts analyzed, and ratings captured without trying to secure traditional broadcast presentation.
Major existing players, though, stand to benefit with recognizable names and the ability to drive viewing traffic from the broadcast space into the iTV space. Further, major players will be one of the select few able to pay for the development and distribution of their PS2 viewing software.
No matter how many content providers stand to benefit from the easier access to viewers (and broadband companies from increased ISP service), the most important issue to consider is that iTV is truly deployable today using such ubiquitous console boxes. The PS2 (and even the XBox with Microsoft's "walled garden" ISP approach) stands ready for content providers to start delivering programming that can take advantage of interaction and added information.