Dan Ruby and Dan Lavin
Interactive Network
Futurists tell us interactive television is the cure for our addiction to passive entertainment. But if today's generation of interactive TV systems is any indication, please pass the potato chips.
Actually, interactive television has been with us since Zenith introduced the Space Commander remote control in 1962. Could it be that smarter control units in two-way communication with television programs produced for interactivity will someday be as commonplace as the remote is today? Probably.
In the future, a television viewer might be able to branch through different story lines, select programming on demand, or play live games against millions of other viewers. For now, the most you can do is predict the next play from scrimmage or try to outguess Jessica on "Murder She Wrote."
These are among the services offered by Interactive Network, probably the most advanced system on the market today. IN offers a $200 control unit and a monthly subscription to its television simulcasts. The programming is delivered to the user by radio subfrequency, presenting information and play options on the control-unit screen in synch with programming on television. For example, as you watch the "Jeopardy" answer revealed on television, you enter the question on your unit at home. Later, you upload your score to the IN computers and compete for prizes against other players. Besides game shows, IN's programming is heavily weighted toward sports and talk programs.
For now, the system is available only in sections of Northern California. But the company hopes to be available nationally within two years. IN doesn't have the market to itself, but no competitor has as strong a pedigree. David B. Lockton founded IN in 1988 armed with a patent for transmitting data in unused parts of broadcast transmissions. The chief technologist is Dr. Robert J. Brown, who fathered Pong. IN's board includes a former head of Warner/AMEX cable, the founder of the Lexis and Nexis database services, and the president of NBC Cable. Technical advisors include luminaries Nicholas Negroponte, Alan Kay, and Bob Teeter, the Republican Party pollster.
But really eye-popping are the investors: NBC, A.C. Nielsen, United Artists, Cablevision, Singatronics, Videotron and the Granada Group of England. All these investors have substantial distribution or programming rights. With this financing and an $18 million public offering in 1991, IN has ample funds to build its market.
With a patented system for receiving and ranking up to 50 million user scores, IN will specialize in sports and game programming. "We are still looking for the killer application," said James "Bow" Rodgers, IN's vice president of sales and marketing.
So were we, as we played with two IN units over a period of several months. We found much to like with the system. The control unit itself is well designed. Uploading scores to IN's central computer is completely automatic.
The big question is the programming. Playing along with sporting events was fun, but the total focus on predicting the outcome of plays eventually grew tiresome. Ditto for game shows - diverting but shallow. Polling applications have interesting implications for Perot-style electronic democracy, but it is hard to see how such surveys could be made statistically significant.
Interactive TV will really take off when there is a big enough user base to justify the programming costs. In the meantime, questions about transmission systems, user interface, and interactive applications are yet to be answered. For now, keep on munching.
Interactive Network, 415-960-1007.
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