Will 2009 Be a Banner Year for Broadband TV? February 11th, 2009
Portia Krebs

At a time when Internet video viewing is soaring and watching television shows on mobile phones is gaining ground, bringing viewers back to the television set is a priority for many industry executives.  But in this new world where social networking and online interactivity reign supreme, viewers need TV with a twist to captivate their interest, and interactive broadband TV just may fit the bill.

This week, a New York Times article speculated that 2009 could be the year when interactive TV gains momentum.  In fact, the research firm SNL Kagan projects that 55 million homes will be interactive-TV enabled by the end of the year, and 75 million homes will be interactive-ready by the end of 2010.  Content providers are even jumping on the broadband TV bandwagon, with ESPN recently announcing its plans to adopt an entirely interactive programming format.

While interactive TV has been a fixture in Europe for years, the U.S. has been slow to merge digital broadcast television with the Internet, creating a two-way viewing experience.  But the runaway popularity of online video is now driving competition and innovation to create a more dynamic television experience.

But if we build broadband TV, will viewers come?  SpikeTV’s interactive broadcast of the 2007 Video Game Awards provided compelling evidence that viewer interest is there.  During the two-hour show, 25% of the audience spent a half hour interacting – a percentage that is consistent with other studies documenting the use of interactive TV features.

With worldwide subscriptions to telecom-delivered TV expected to triple by 2012, telecom providers will undoubtedly be frontrunners on the interactive TV landscape.  Already, U.S. companies like AT&T and Verizon Communications offer their versions of broadband TV.

So will 2009 be a banner year for broadband TV? All signals say “yes,” but stay tuned for more

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Benefits of Broadband, Reports and Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.