Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Interactive TV: Online or On TV?
Startup
Overlay.TV is attempting to realize the elusive promise of interactive TV with an online advertising platform.
The company, based in Ottawa (the coldest place I've ever been in January), is licensing a platform for commerce companies and publishers to monetize video content. The platform includes tool for hyperlinking areas of video to ecommerce on information websites.
This could -- emphasis on could -- be an alternative for professional video producers to get around pre-roll or post roll ads. If they can find an entertaining way to match the images with relevant content that doesn't distract from the viewing experience. The technology can also be used to add entertainment value that could generate viewership outside of TV. For example, watch American Idol live, then see it again online, with the lyrics displayed, or bios of the original artists plus the contestants.
Interactive TV has to happen and will happen, and for now online is a superior technology platform to what the cable infrastructure supports.
Posted By John Gartner at 10:32 PM
Permanent Link: Interactive TV: Online or On TV?
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(1) Comments on Interactive TV: Online or On TV?
John, to answer some of your questions, I am Rob Lane, CEO of Overlay.TV. Your comments are well-taken. The promise of interactive TV is where we envision our technology going. The original idea for Overlay.TV was conceived by our Chief Architect who was observing the behaviour of his wife while watching a television show. As she watched the program she made comments about the items/products the actors were wearing but became frustrated as she had no idea about where to purchase those items from. We realized the potential where the user was able to buy or find out more information about items in a show in which he/she was already engaged.
We definitely see this as an alternative to pre-roll and postroll ads since it provides the user the option to see the overlays. The user can watch the video in its natural form and bookmark any of the items of interest for later review. The strongest differentiator among other video ad technologies is relevance. Allow the user to get exactly what they see on the video and you will drive a higher response.
From a pure fun perspective, we see our technology as being adopted easily by those who normally watch video. This is a standard of interactivity and we provide a simply way for users to drop fun images and text over top of video from any of the video sharing sites. It provides the user a new playground to creatively showcase themselves.
Comments by RobL : Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 10:05 AM
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