There are 3 reasons I once decided to get a digital television at home:
- Better quality. Especially with one of those fancy new full HD screens that’s a much better experience.
- Comfort features. Think about the EPG, easier recording, movie rental, …
- Interactivity. Push the red/blue/whatever-color button and you will get a richer experience
The end score, 2 out of 3. I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but in Belgium interactive part is pretty nonexistent. I’ve used the red button less than 5 times in the 3 years I’ve got digital tv at home. It was always a disappointment. Useless information, bad experience, ugly, … Content makers nor advertisers seem to show any interest in it. Too bad because I had really high hopes for this. It’s pretty easy to imagine how this could be used in many really cool ways. Didn’t happen.
When I read about the My Generation iPad app from abc it sounded like they built an app to do what interactive tv couldn’t. The same promise all over again, but you’ll need another device to experience it. And only with My Generation on abc.
Don’t get me wrong, I think these are cool evolutions. I’m just wondering why none of the richer tv experiences have ever really succeeded without the help of peripheral devices. Sounds like a missed opportunity to me for television makers.
Anyway, good stuff from abc. Curious to see how this will evolve further. What do you think?
'Cross The Breeze 
I’ve been in an interactive TV panel (organized by IBBT) in Belgium a few years ago (when working at Saatchi). People from Telenet and Belgacom where part of the team. I suggested integrating Facebook so that one could share his favorite content (which could be ads) with his friends. Clearly they didn’t do anything with it. These kind of panels and exercises are part (or should be part of) a research and development department at Telenet/Belgacom. But I have the impression most resources go into sales.