Representatives of more than 30 companies in the interactive television industry recently created the Interactive Television Alliance, a new trade association that plans to promote iTV deployment through consumer awareness campaigns and cross-industry outreach.
The iTV Alliance represents a coalition of companies and professionals that create, distribute and enable interactive programming delivered through television. The iTV Alliance has over 30 core member companies, including Canal +, Liberate, OpenTV, Wink and WorldGate, and 100 more prospective members. The group includes representatives from all segments of the iTV production chain: content, distribution, advertising, applications, hardware, data/commerce and production.
One focus of the association will be on creating partnerships with advertisers to facilitate the creation of new business models and interactive programming approaches in order to make iTV profitable.
The alliance is also developing a public awareness campaign designed to stimulate consumer demand for iTV services. The campaign hopes to set realistic expectations about what can be delivered soon and collect data on what the public wants in the future.
