Five abandons interactive TV service

by Gareth Jones, Marketing 31-Mar-08, 12:50

LONDON - Five has pulled the plug on its interactive TV (iTV) service, meaning viewers will no longer be able to interact with programmes or ads on the channel via their remote control.

The broadcaster is understood to have scrapped red-button interactivity on its flagship channel after deciding the technology is too expensive to be included in its future commercial strategy.

For the full story see this week's Marketing.

Comments

Peter Riley - 01/04/2008

History is littered with good ideas that never lived up to the promise on paper. Allowing consumers to interact with content is, as we all know, exactly what consumers wish to do. But it needs to be easy, quick and ultimately rewarding. iTV often fails on all these points, but for me it follows the same illogcal assumption of banner advertising. Namely, why would I want to be lead away from the programme or website I've chosen to watch, only to end up (many valuable seconds later) in the unknown? A system that allows me to interact without delay and without interuption is what consumers want. iTV can't do this and without a whole bunch of interesting content behind the red button, it has a rocky future.