Five iTV Trends to Watch

Keep an eye on these developing trends to find out where ITV is headed and what it means for you

February 19, 2007
Timothy R. Hawthorne

Five iTV Trends to Watch

Keep an eye on these developing trends to find out where ITV is headed and what it means for you.

It won't be long before the picture of a television viewer buying products and services using only his remote control comes into clear view, thus creating a truly interactive experience that many marketers have been anxiously waiting for. And while it could be 2010 before iTV becomes mainstream, that only gives you three years to figure out how to take advantage of this next wave of television advertising.

For those of you who believe that the early bird gets the worm, here are five key iTV trends to watch over the coming year:

Consumers will continue warming up to the idea of the "click and buy." Whether they're doing it online, on their cell phones or using some other gadget, consumers are becoming more accustomed than ever to buying with a simple click. This bodes well for iTV, whose very mission is to get buyers to say yes without ever having to put down their remote control devices.

More people are using digital video recorders and TiVo. TiVo already has 4.5 million units in American homes, and many more consumers are recording shows and fast-forwarding through the clutter using DVRs that they lease from cable providers like Comcast and BrightHouse. These machines provide a vital link for iTV, which will use them to reach out to consumers who want to "point, click and buy" from their TV sets.

Cable companies and networks are getting on board. "The cable industry controls 90 million homes, and they've spent years upgrading their systems in order to get into iTV," says Ben Mendelson, president of the iTV Alliance in Los Angeles. Slowly but surely, they're dipping their toes into the iTV arena. One move in the right direction was the partnership between TiVo and Comcast to create a DVR platform for the latter's cable customers. "The cable companies control the largest chunk of viewership, and they won't spend a lot of money on anything if they don't have to," says Mendelson, who sees corporate incentives and consumer demand pushing the trend forward over the next few months. "Cable companies are starting to get concerned, and want to make sure that their product is competitive with all the new products that are coming out."

Direct TV is rolling out new products. Calling this trend very important for the advancement of iTV, Mendelson says the fact that Direct TV plans to roll out new, interactive products (after a hiatus brought on by ownership changes) will prompt cable companies to start pushing out their own interactive programs even faster. "That's really going to get this thing going very quickly over the next one to two years," Mendelson adds.

The iTV capabilities themselves are evolving. Using platforms like TiVo and digital cable, advertisers already have the ability to do incredible things with iTV. They can show a short teaser, for example, and then display menus that allow the viewer to decide what she wants to watch next. You can hide an incredible amount of content behind that 10- to 30-second teaser, such as an interactive tour, product features and/or testimonials. Expect to see more companies using these strategies as iTV continues to evolve, grow and become even more mainstream in the advertising world.