Interactive television (ITV)

Interactive television (ITV) can be defined as “TV that is controlled by the viewer, whether this implies interprogram or intraprogram decision making capabilities� (Hodge 1995:3). There has been talk of interactive television of some sort or another, and even though there has been a slow progress, it is not as radical as analysts predicted. The remote control, VCR, pay-per-view, early teletext services like the British Ceefax, and now digital TV and PVRs (such as TiVo) has each contributed to make television more convergent and interactive- one such company specialising in this specific field is Open TV. One issue concerning many large media companies is where this interactive television will leave advertisers? Viewers having the power to watch only what they want to watch, TiVo letting people record favourite programs minus the ads? The advertising industry will change. It's just a question of how quickly and to what extent. The television is, in these days, also increasingly used as a monitor for other media such as game consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Game cube etc.), DVDs and VCRs. Furthermore, video on demand (VOD) has a high degree of interactivity between the viewer and the material being viewed by having the potential of providing individual television viewers virtually on the spot access to a wide range of recorded movies, video programs, games, information and other services.