TV is in major transition. Where are the opportunities across on-demand platforms? Is the old advertising model broken? Will broadband to set top box comfortably co-exist with video on the web?

The Interactive TV broadcasters role in the iTV future will be as a facilitator of the US conversation enabled by a range of return path services.

Coming soon: Currently we are beginning to engage audiences with simple voting or donating alongside major network programmes or as a ubiquitous part of the 24/7 offering. This will evolve quickly and the audience will be able to send messages to the TV provider and each other directly via their set top boxes. These messages could be simply comments or could guide the editorial direction of a programme (steer the storyline, choose the final video, feed into the great debate and so on).

Around the corner: The return path enables a whole range of other ways viewers could interact with our services. Some, for example, could play live ‘computer’ studio games from their living rooms – against other viewers – that everyone else can see. They could take part in studio quizzes remotely, join in live celebrity chat and be submitted in ‘competitive’ leader boards for prizes. Many of the initial return path services will be combined with data received from the online, telephony and mobile parts of the service to provide a much wider ‘conversation’.

On the horizon: In a more distant future the ability to communicate via the TV or any of a range of other devices will be commonplace and the challenge for interactive TV providers will be to provide a consistent journey for the viewer. For example, being able to send a message into a morning news programme – then to pick up a reply from the show’s producer on your mobile – who invites you to chat live to a key politician online later that day – you are also told online that there will be a vote on a key issue – in the evening you watch a debate programme on TV and place your vote – the following morning you see the complete result on your mobile.

Many TV providers are currently engaged with return path suppliers to enable this. There are off the shelf systems coming along and being used now that will allow the connection of set top box viewers to be fed directly to the galleries of live shows.

Hurdles: There are many technical hurdles to overcome and quite a few business ones before we really switch on the big ‘return channel’. One immediate issue is simply that the current networks available on Digital Satellite and Digital Cable would be overcome with large numbers of viewers interacting with popular network and localised programmes. Another very major hurdle is that many of the new lower end set top boxes will not have the ability to take advantage of built in return path services as they do not have a modem or other form of communication mechanism.