Karna Crawford

Always Watching Things Around Me

Apr

1

How the iPad Will Drive Interactive TV

By Karna

We’ve talked about interactive TV in the marketplace for as long as I can remember. We’ve seen iterations of it in hotel rooms and the cable companies are trying to dabble with it via there set top boxes. However, there just hasn’t seemed to be anyone who has truly, seamlessly brought interactive TV to life in a meaningful way, with an elegant user interface.

In comes the iPad. I’m not sure if the capability will be created through an app or through APPLE themselves, but I believe that the iPad introduces a new opportunity to more seamlessly integrate the interactivity of a web site experience in connection with streaming of video content.

My iPad is COMING SOON. I’d love to see an opportunity for me to view a show on the iPad and be able to interact with either the show, the content, the advertising experiences that are related to it, and/or my friends while viewing. I mean, seriously, every Monday night, I sit with my TV on Gossip Girl and my iPhone in hand, texting facebook updates about the craziness of the show. Now, I can do it a LOT more conveniently via the iPad. I know that I could have done it while streaming on my desktop…but watching GG at the desk just isn’t something I’m planning to do. Just not that comfortable.

I can envision this applied to other forms of streaming content and interactivity as well. The ability to take some of the “TiVO” learnings. Watch a show that has a tune in commercial for another show…or a trailer for another movie, and be able to (1) click to tell my iPad or my home DVR box to record the show or (2) click to buy movie tickets for the film that just previewed.

Again…these aren’t new ideas for sure. I’m just feeling pretty bullish that these ideas can now come to life in a much more scalable way thanks to the capability, format and elegance of the iPad.

We’ll have to watch and see. :0)

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  • Yonathan.G
    Your dream is closer to reality than you think. Last i heard Yahoo! was working on a TV+chat app for ITV. Sports illustrated Ipad app should soon have an app that allows interaction between Ipad and TV.

    We recently worked with the guys at the wonder factory , they do awesome work. Check it out: http://www.thewonderfactory.com/
  • tomerific
    Karna -- unfortunately, you're going to need to either wait for an app that has all of the functionality that you want (because the iPad can't run multiple applications at one time) or set up Twitter to simultaneously post to Facebook to make your vision a reality.

    Since we continue to watch more shows that have been time-shifted, I'm looking forward to the day when I use a service that allows me to replay a show or movie along with my friend's commentary. The challenge to this becoming reality is that you need a large social network that is open enough to let you harvest its content in such a way that you can easily filter normal chat out and gather posts that are specific to a show/movie. Facebook (to my knowledge) won't let you do that very easily!

    Dare to dream! :)
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