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K.C. NEEL
Interactive services are becoming more popular with consumers, but the most desirable services available today are based in traditional TV watching methods with little active participation on the part of viewers.
Depending on which study is cited, consumers either crave interactive services, or they simply don't care. CTAM released a study last week that suggests 79% of digital cable customers and 55% of analog cable customers are very or somewhat receptive to interactive TV features. A recent Cyber Dialogue survey of 1,000 American adults found that seven out of 10 people aren't interested in any form of interactive TV, and only 27% of Americans say they're interested in navigating the Web from the comfort of their living room couches via their TV sets.
CTAM president Char Beales maintains other studies have lower acceptance rates for interactive services because they are difficult to explain to consumers. In instances where consumers can actually see or use the interactive features, the demand for those services rises.
"This study is unique because we focused on the cable television-viewing customer, as opposed to the PC and Internet user," says CTAM's VP-research Barbara Gural. "When interactive TV features are demonstrated, these customers are definitely receptive."
CTAM's latest study on interactivity, released during the SCTE Show in New Orleans last week, found that, in general, digital cable customers who have experienced and used interactive guides want more interactive services available to them. In turn, analog customers queried by Ipsos-Reid, via online interviews conducted at mall locations between Sept. 25 and Oct. 29, expressed greater interest in digital cable tiers after they were exposed to the interactive guide.
CTAM demonstrated eight interactive TV services to 263 digital and 262 analog viewers in six markets where digital is widely available. After viewing each demonstration, participants were asked to evaluate the appeal of each feature and indicate their willingness to purchase those services.
Video-on-demand and personal video recorders clearly beat out the other services hands down with 58% of digital and 55% of analog customers saying those services were the most appealing. Customers were most willing to buy VOD services (71% of digital customers and 67% of analog customers).
The increasing shift by consumers to accept interactive services is a big driver in the sale of digital tiers, CTAM's Beales says.
"They used not to care about those features," she says. "So operators had to push things like specialized programming on those tiers. Now the interactive guide is one of the most popular features of the digital tiers."
Consumers like the idea of what a PVR does for them, she says, but few really want to buy another piece of equipment to get those features.
That's why cable operators are moving to incorporate the PVR into the set-top box. When asked to rank the features, VOD and PVRs came out on top, followed by local information available via the TV set; watching an interactive program; Internet access via TV; and the ability to buy products using the TV.
GEMSTAR POPS AOL MERGER Gemstar TV Guide International weighed in on the AOL Time Warner marriage by claiming the colossal merger could result in Gemstar's guide signal being blocked from consumers. Time Warner Cable dropped TV Guide's on-air electronic guide in 1998 but stopped blocking the signal in June pending a ruling from the FCC. Gemstar maintains the merged AOL Time War-ner could discriminate against it and other content providers in the future and wants rules put in place to eliminate anti-competitive behavior.
LODGENET CHECKS IN LodgeNet Entertainment and InnMedia, a joint venture by LodgeNet and Hilton Hotels, have begun deploying interactive guest services that include high-speed Internet access, video-on-demand and other interactive services. Guests at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel in California are the first to have access to the services. Among the services available to customers: Web browsing on television; "Web Cinema," which provides Web films reformatted for high-quality, full-screen TV resolution; "Check Headlines," which offers instant access to up-to-the minute news, weather, and sports.
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