Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter Objectives

• What is iTV and how is it better?

• What is the iTV history, present, and future?

• What are the technologies?

Interactive TV (iTV) can be viewed as the next evolution and merging of the Internet and Digital TV. It enhances traditional TV along two dimensions: the use of digital signals and enabling interactivity. Interactive TV is a collection of services that support subscriber-initiated choices or actions that are related to one or more video programming streams. Although it is possible to achieve interactive TV using analog signals, there is already an infrastructure for digital TV services which provide a new level of viewer experience.

Interactive TV has a long history, an exciting present, and a promising future. Enabling the present and future are numerous technologies and standards related to transport and presentation of content. Today, assembling these technologies into a working iTV service is a monumental task.

This book is intended to serve as an introductory overview rather than a complete reference. The focus is on introducing concepts and issues rather than providing a complete detailed engineering reference.