Interactive television, the once-promising technology that has failed to live up to its hype, might be staging a comeback--at least in a few corners of the Southland.
Analysts and pundits had all but declared two-way TV dead, now that personal computers are in nearly half of all homes and the World Wide Web has emerged as the interactive media of choice. Extended interactive TV trials found that few consumers were anxious to spend time with their televisions on such tasks as electronic banking or home shopping.
Even movies on demand--thought to be the most appealing application for interactive TV--were judged to be too expensive. Less than two weeks ago, Time Warner finally pulled the plug on its Full Service Network, which was introduced in Florida two years ago amid great fanfare.
But hope springs eternal. In Santa Barbara, a new pilot project aims to turn ordinary TV sets into virtual PCs with two-way technology from ICTV Inc. of Los Gatos. And GTE last week began selling its mainStreet interactive TV service in Ventura County from Thousand Oaks to Camarillo.
MainStreet allows customers to participate in game shows and cooking classes, get updates on local news and weather, and search an online encyclopedia by pointing remote control devices at their TVs. Selected Web sites will be added to the two-way cable service.
Most of the same services were featured in a decade-long test in Cerritos that ended last fall and is widely considered a flop.
"A lot of people hyped interactive TV, and unfortunately it couldn't fulfill the hoopla," said Robert J. Regan, senior vice president of GTE mainStreet. "We have more services available today than in Cerritos."
Subscribers to GTE's americast cable service can order mainStreet for $3.95 a month, or $2.95 with a package of premium services. So far, about half of all americast customers have ordered mainStreet services, and Regan said he hopes to have 20,000 mainStreet subscribers by the end of the year.
The technology from ICTV is designed to turn a television into a virtual PC. It allows customers to use cable lines to use the Internet, play CD-ROM games, send e-mail and surf the Web.
Computers and other equipment at the local offices of Cox Cable Communications take data from a file server and convert it to broadcast specifications before sending it to customers over cable lines. Then customers use a wireless keyboard--complete with tracking ball and mouse buttons--and a small electronic device to send keystroke commands back to the cable office. ICTV has won 11 patents for its technology; an additional 10 are pending.
