At Beet.TV, we cover a lot of stories around online video, but a reverse phenomenon is going to reach half of the television homes in America this year, according to Dalen Harrison, CEO of interactive TV company Ensequence.
Ensequence brings "the interactivity of the Internet" to the television, allowing users to interact with applications, vote on poll questions, and find more information about advertised products with their remotes. So far Ensequence is available to 30 million homes through DirecTV and Dish Networks, but cable companies are quickly jumping on board.
"In just this last weekend [SNL] Kagan announced their numbers for this, and I
think it was 23 million homes they expect to have this year on cable,
and of course Canoe Ventures, which has been in the press a lot talking
about the standards and the ability to deploy interactive across all
the cable operators who are participating. It's reaching critical mass," Harrison says. "If the numbers are right not from our view of it but from what has been announced, over half of all television homes will have it this year, which is phenomenal."
Ensequence is working with all of the major networks, and will increasingly be used not just for single events–like the Beijing Olympics–but all of the time. ESPN announced in December that it will have interactivity available 24/7.
NewTeeVee has a story about the deployment of interactive TV this year–and the regulations that have prevented its mainstream reach in the past–here.
–Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
