Interactive Television - Essay Example

Interactive Television Case Study Interactive Television Case Study Introduction Television usage is d back to more than fifty years ago. Television was the principal form of communication and advertisement. After the introduction of other media, such as Radio, newspapers, mobile advertising and bill boards, television usage as means of communications declined tremendously (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). Due to constant research and the technological advancement, new ways and techniques have been invented to breathe life back into Television usage (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006) . One of the major milestone in the advancement of television is the blending of the Television technology and the internet (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). The combination of satellite, cable and fiber based broadband penetration together with targeting, interactivity, and company’s knowledge of people’s physical address and other contact credentials has launched a new era in marketing, organizational communication and advertising (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). ITV (an acronym for Interactive Television) is a range of technologies which has blended data services together with the traditional television technology. It entails enhancements and interactive contents. Interactive Television is enriched with providing interactions, rich entertainments, more information regarding various shows, props together with all the personnel responsible in its creation. Basically, Interactive television combines the features of the traditional television with interactivity which is enjoyed by people through a network such as LAN, WAN and internet (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). Programming of interactive Television ranges from links to websites, richer graphics, and electronic communication among online users through a back channel. As a result, there is on – demand delivery of content together with services such as shopping, banking, ticket booking, among others (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Digital Interactive Television exists in several forms and are manufactured by different companies. One form of Digital Interactive television is the Set top Boxes. This kind of Interactive Televisions are made by companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, Scientific Atlantic and Pace. This types of televisions are designed specifically to run interactive television services. During the manufacture of these products, the interactive TV is designed in such a manner that it can collect data from the user to the service provider (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Each of the Digital set boxes is assigned an IP (Internet Protocol) address thus making it uniquely identifiable. With this, it is possible for the service provider to customize contents to each customer basing on geographical position and other factors. Interactive Televisions are categorized into three categories. That is cable television, satellite television, and personal Video recorder. Each of this type of interactive television services facilitates data transfer in three forms (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Data is exchanged between the service provider and the user through broadband. Another instance is whereby the user request for a specific type of data and / or channel from the service provider by clicking a button on the remote control and finally, through Personal Video Recorder (PVR). For the service providers to collect data from the interactive Televisions, the following data collection methodologies are used. These are real Time, storing and forwarding and storing on the box (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Case Synopsis Kenya Television Network is a television station which offers television services using the traditional television technology. The company’s income has reduced tremendously, and this causes an alarm to the management of the company. Due to this, the company forms an enquiry committee to unravel the cause of the massive decrease. After the committee’s research, it presents its finding, in which among other reasons, the advancement of technology and the sprouting of other media of communication is found to be the principal cause of the decline in profits. To curb this, the company resolves to invent new technologies in order to compete effectively with other media of advertisements. Kenya Television Network Company after unanimously agreeing to roll out interactive technologies, the problem of effective interface of advertisement came up. Though Television content advertising is powerfully commercialized by advertising, most audience perceives it as in intrusion. Thus, a user friendly interface has to be devised and also, effective regulation of advertising on the interactive television network has to be implemented (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Organizational goal. Kenya Television Network was faced with terribly serious issues regarding minimizing losses and increasing profits. Thus to curb these misfortunes the company was facing, it had set up goals and objectives to facilitate effective execution of the role out plan. Thus in its new development, the company was aimed at eliminating costs, growing the profits, delivering high quality services to the audience and its clients and at the same time minimizing costs. To add on that, the company was aimed at rolling out a simple user friendly interface that contains appropriate information architecture which was to facilitate maximizing and adopting the mediums usability conventions. Strategy Adopted to Achieve the Goal To facilitate the initiative, the previously set objectives were used as a guide line. To roll out interactive television Network efficiently, the Information and Technology department agreed to put down high speed internet cable connection. This was to ensure the network had the ability to carry heavy traffic at the simultaneously without collapsing. A cable high speed internet connection was laid down using the latest infrastructure that is capable of supporting heavy traffic without over loading (Erdogan, 2004). The employees of the company together with outside consultants worked around the clock, to devise a strategy with the best most user friendly interactive Television interface. To achieve this, a user centered design which is on – demand and personalized was developed. In the devised design, advertisement was set to begin when the audience begins wondering more about a given product when enjoying their favorite programs. In simple terms, the interface tries to mimic how people approach products they are interested with. This user interface was considered to be appropriate to all groups of computer users, i.e. both the unskilled and skilled users. Thus, this helped reach out to all sorts of people and was perceived as the major income source in the company. Measurable Success Factors After the implementation and complete roll out of the initiative, the losses which were previously incurred by the Kenya Television Network Company were totally eliminated and the profits increased tremendously. Moreover, the number of clients and audience increased to almost double the previous number. This is attributed to the role out of the plan and its effective management and monitoring. The coverage area had increased up to the international levels. As a result, clients from all over the world were harvested. Due to the new installed technology, the number of employees required to do certain services in Kenya Television Network Company were reduced. This implied reduced wages thus consequently reducing the company’s expenditure. Furthermore, the company was now competing effectively with other similar companies and other related media of advertisement in the host country and around the world. Conclusion and Analysis of End results. Since the role out of iTV by Kenya Television Network companies, its number of customers has experienced significant positive strides. According to the current statistics, over 200 million users use are able to use the interactive Television with Kenya Television Network Being among the many service providers around the world. The introduction of Interactive television to personal computers is not the limit. Studies are under way to introduce interactive television on other portable devices such as smartphones, and tablets. With the introduction of interactive television on co – browsing companion devices, the user of the service are expected to increase and thus increased income for the service providers. Despite the advantages of Interactive Television to the service providers, it has also numerous advantages to the users (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). Some of this advantages include; Viewers interacting with presenters, Viewers are able to setup news their own customized programs and news in real time and at local experience, it saves the audience money, it saves a lot of time for the audience, the audience’s opinion is counted in the activities of the given service provider (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006) (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). As stated by many users, advertisers and service providers, interactive television has truly many beneficial uses, its use is very little in work places since it focuses mainly on the consumers. Thus, the use of current communication technologies such as video conferencing, mobile phones among others remains intact as the main communication media in work places and to some extent they are superior to the interactive television. What is the future of interactive Television services? Television mode of communication is among the communication media that most researchers and innovators focus on to try and introduce new services. With this continuing innovation and invention, it clear that it has the gist to provide shows which will be considered to introduce completely new Television experience. Basing on the current strides in this technology, it can be concluded that interactive television is promising to be ubiquitous in the coming days, though it has its shortcomings as compared to other smart devices such as tablets and smartphones. Works Cited Erdogan, E. (2004, April). Interactive Television and Advertising. Institute for Innovation and Improvement. (2006, June 05). Digital Interactive Television. Retrieved from http://www.institute.nhs.uk/building_capability/technology_and_product_innovation/digital_interactive_television_benefits.html Interactive Advertising Bureau. (2011). AN INTERACTIVE TELEVISION ADVERTISING OVERVIEW . Read More