IPA Commissions Digital iTV Report

The IPA has commissioned a report to asses the current status and future development of digital interactive TV (DiTV) in the UK.

The report, which is being compiled by e-business advisor and former head of commerce at Woolworths, Howard Unna, will be published in January next year and aims to identify how DiTV can be made more accessible to advertisers.

The report will examine existing business strategies and revenue models within the medium and will look at how digital consumers interact with their TV. It will propose a set of industry standards for interactive advertising and will asses whether the results of interactive campaigns are measurable.

Howard Unna said: “The opportunities for digital television are only just being realised. Its time for the TV platform providers and the marketing fraternity to start talking to each other, collaborating and building best practice standards in order to bring new solutions to advertisers, content providers and retailers. At the moment the opportunities are being buried deep within the technology and jargon.”

The IPA’s director general, Hamish Pringle, added: “The Government is working towards switching off the analogue signal by 2008, so its important that the IPA draws attention to the new medium and encourages more experimentation so that digital TV can realise its full potential. This report is our marker as to where we are and identifies issues that we as an industry need to debate so we can move forward.”

Speaking at last week’s New Media Age Congress, Mike Bloxam, CEO of Netpoll, said that the majority of digital viewers are uninterested in interactive services (see Programme Makers Must Drive iTV Uptake) and a report published yesterday by the ITC shows that consumers find interactive TV hard to use (see Interactive TV Seen As Hard To Use).

IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk

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