Stations Should Join Cable In 2-Way Play
GUEST COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL KOKERNAK
By Michael Kokernak
TVNewsCheck
August 17 2009
The cable guys have quietly been getting ready to introduce interactive technologies. Interactive TV is long overdue and non-believers are once again believers. And the good news is that TV stations will be able to participate in the new two-way services (and revenue streams), albeit in partnership with cable.
The key is the interactive TV standard developed under the aegis of Cable Labs. EBIF, as it is called, permits multiple programmers to offer interactive features to consumers through EBIF-enabled, set-top boxes.Canoe Ventures and Verizon's Developers Program, two platforms leveraging EBIF, are talking about deployments in millions of homes by the end of 2009.
Broadcasters, perhaps unknowingly, have been installing gear that will allow them to create interactive content. They should not miss the opportunity.
The kind of interactivity I'm talking about enables programmers, including TV stations, to embed clickable links inside of commercials and programs with all kinds of commercial possibilities. A viewer, for instance, could click on an ad that drops a coupon into her online grocery account or e-mail or mail her more information about the product. Or, a fan of American Idol could order songs from iTunes as she listens to them being performed.
To offer such services, TV stations would use the same content management, graphics and traffic and billing systems.
The broadcaster would insert an EBIF-recognized trigger or code within their content and pass this to the content management system. At the same time, the content would be tracked through a customer code as a secondary event for billing.
The cable headend — through a contractual relationship with the broadcaster — would recognize the broadcaster's EBIF trigger and pass it through to the consumer's set-top box.
Once the consumer signifies interest by clicking the remote control, the response data is passed back to the broadcaster either directly or through a third party like a Canoe, Verizon or Backchannelmedia and matched to the customer data for invoicing.
As the broadcaster gains expertise in this technology, they could roll out hundreds of different applications — provided by a multitude of software providers — with each generating revenue, stabilizing ratings metrics or growing viewership.
Currently, a broadcaster airs about 500 30-second commercials each day. EBIF triggers could be embedded every 15 seconds throughout programming and commercials for a total of 5,760 on screen "links" a day. If the broadcaster has 400,000 total daily viewers (watching an average four hours a day), then the potential is there for up to a maximum of 384 million daily clicks for the broadcaster.That potential could put broadcasters back into the growth mode and offet any losses due to DVRs.
Broadcasters need to start talking about interactive television and also meeting with their cable providers.Interactive television is a different conversation than retransmission consent so the discussions should be kept separate. With Canoe's planned 25 million EBIF homes by the fourth quarter and FIOS's 2.5 million home, broadcasters will finally have the scale they need to make it a business.
Advertisers are plastering their content with 800-numbers and URLs. Each represents money broadcasters are leaving on the table.
Broadcasters should be focused on how to redirect the flow of these dollars from telemarketers to themselves through interactive television.
Michael Kokernak is a 20-year television industry veteran. He has spent the past 13 years researching and inventing monetization technologies for the digital spectrum. He is the named inventor on several patent applications in the space. In addition, Kokernak is the founder of Backchannelmedia (). He be can contacted at .
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Comments (13) -
PSIPthing posted 21 hours, 32 minutes ago
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YAIS. "yet another interactive scenario". I hate to be backwards-thinking, but has a single one -- starting with Warner's CUBE -- ever generated even positive revenue? What is different with this one? The telling paragraph was free-standing "To offer such services, TV stations would use the same content management, graphics and traffic and billing systems". Perhaps some television station in the U.S. uses a content management system (as opposed to asset management, like that from StorerTV), but no vendor I have talked to has sold one to broadcast or cable. It's hard to believe that any broadcast traffic or billing system (actually ONE system at virtually all stations) handles this. Graphics, perhaps. So, "the same" as what? Something that cable operators have yet to deploy?
formergm posted 20 hours, 38 minutes ago
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I've seen variations of this for the past 20 years. Total revenue generated - $0.
Rocker posted 19 hours, 39 minutes ago
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I wonder why the "nothing new will ever work" crowd is always so vocal on TVNewsCheck. It's like a refuge/safe haven for old media types. So we know what new ideas you're against...virtually all of them. Do you guys think that broadcasters should fundamentally just keep operating like the world of technology...and consumer/viewer media usage patterns...are not being turned upside down around them? Embracing the latest "hot trend" is not a business model, granted. But the old business model is imploding, so we have two options...find some new ideas, or start making plans to shut down.
PhillyPhlash posted 19 hours, 36 minutes ago
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Call in the anti-trust division. Broadcasters can use these digitally-enabled technologies without ANY input from the cable industry. Phone lines could just as easily provide the upstream component -- but, as posters above have stated, who needs it? The cable guys want to kill free, OTA TV and apparently their plan is to induce surrender by dangling high-tech alchemy that broadcasters could develop on their own, if it was really worth it. FCC, are you listening? Stop the monopolists (or oligopolists) and protect free, over the air TV.
Michael Kokernak posted 19 hours, 34 minutes ago
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the technology works with over the air receivers and a wi-fi return path that is as long as a software nugget is downloaded to the box. I left off that aspect in this article just to get broadcasters focused in first on cable as a potential partner -- but over the air could be the sweet spot.
PhillyPhlash posted 19 hours, 23 minutes ago
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Isn't that wi-fi capability the reason why some people insist that DTV can be used as a covert surveillance tool? Now this is getting interesting...
PhillyPhlash posted 19 hours, 26 minutes ago
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An addendum: DTV technology allows broadcasters to stream text services. A TV station could run headlines from a wire service over these closed-caption option text streams, with graphix -- a 21st version of teletext. To my knowledge, no broadcaster is doing this (and some cable MSOs strip the closed captioning broadcast digital signal after it goes thru their plant). How about a commentary from a broadcaster about the "monetizing" potential of OTA DTV graphics and text services? Here's another idea for broadcasters: Steal some of the cable news market share by persuading a content vendor to offer 24-hour news channels for broadcast on OTA digi-channels...
PSIPthing posted 19 hours, 24 minutes ago
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Rocker; I'm all in favor of new ideas and concepts, but reducing them to code and systems that work in real time with other systems that may or may not be in place at tv stations is "a bit rougher" than criticizing something told breathlessly on TvNewsCheck.com
Michael Kokernak posted 19 hours, 17 minutes ago
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quick background on the technology -- the technology described in the article has been working for approx. 450 days in the over the market into consumer test homes with special set top boxes and the results have been terrific - beyond anything we imagined. Full site surveys have been done on technical equipment used in most broadcasters, but details were kept out of the article to focus purely on the consumer experience. Most consumers will 'click' TV content as quickly as it can be offered to them(hundreds of times year). Site surveys and project plans should be done when considering any of these technologies, but tens of millions of dollars was spent testing over the air first to make sure it would work in an EBIF enviroment. Thought you would appreciate the background.
PSIPthing posted 19 hours, 2 minutes ago
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and, the EBIF standard is published where?
redburgundy posted 1 hour, 46 minutes ago
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Some EBIF specs are here:
Michael Kokernak posted 18 hours, 58 minutes ago
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send me an email to and I will get it to you over the next few days. The trick also is we emeded data inside PSIP and then made sure we could read it (or re-insert it) once goes up on the stick. Give me a couple of days to get it to you though as I am behind on a project.
TVGuy posted 18 hours, 45 minutes ago
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Thanks, Michael, for keeping us all informed and for leading out in this important area. As a 20+ year broadcast veteran I'm intrigued by what you're doing through Backchannelmedia.