If you're jazzed after a great TV aerobics workout with muscle man Bill Phillips, you'll soon be able to buy his book, Body for Life, by clicking your remote.
Barnes & Noble, DirecTV and Wink Communications officially launched the first interactive, round-the-clock television commerce channel Wednesday, enabling any of DirecTV's roughly 2.4 million customers with RCA receivers to buy Barnes & Noble's top 100 books.
The service -- affecting roughly a quarter of DirecTV's customers -- moves interactive television a step closer to mainstream acceptance. Despite much-hyped experiments that show consumers buying pizzas or ordering tickets over their TVs, commerce over TV sets hasn't become a significant reality.
"What's exciting is that there are so many opportunities for conceptual purchasing," said Robert Albert, vice president of strategy and business development for bn.com. You're watching the news or a talk show, and you can just switch over to Barnes & Noble, and chances are we'll have a book that relates to the topic in our top 100."
For example, someone viewing last week's World Trade Center attack could purchase Barnes & Noble's No. 6-ranked Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center on their TV sets. Barnes & Noble is initially only selling top 100 titles while it sees how sales shake out.
The service is not linked to Barnes & Noble's online book-selling operation, which sells the full line of the company's books, CDs and other items. Users log into DirecTV's proprietary interactive TV service and punch in a code to buy items.
For ease of use, "it beats walking over to a computer and buying it," Albert said.
The free service joins interactive television services from ESPN and the Weather Channel already offered by DirecTV. Existing services, including DirecTV's own Interactive Center, only offer information such as sports scores and localized weather forecasts rather than e-commerce. DirecTV is exploring the possibility of commerce on its ESPN Today channel, DirecTV spokesman Marc Altieri said.
DirecTV and Wink will get percentages of every sale Barnes & Noble makes. Wink also got a fee for helping Barnes & Noble develop its interactive TV service.
For DirecTV, the channels offer a critical differentiation from cable operators. Satellite TV companies and cable companies are locked in a bitter battle for the eyeballs of tens of millions of TV households.
The channels, launched over the last year, have seen "pretty compelling usage," Altieri said. About a third of the 2.4 million customers able to access interactive television on their sets use the service once a week, and 20 percent of the 2.4 million access the service more frequently.
DirecTV plans an intense promotional campaign for the Barnes & Noble channel and its other interactive television services, including television advertisements, signs at retailers and direct mail. Altieri said the company is planning to launch other interactive TV services in the future.
