"ATSC 3.0 could transform shopping channels by enabling consumers to buy
products using their televisions, as opposed to computers or phone calls being
the points of purchase. Recently, the NAB partnered with HSN on a prototype
that brought the idea to life. Given the greater delivery capacity broadcasters
will have with next-gen TV, they could get into the home shopping business
themselves, or lease their channels to others, industry leaders said."
Honestly, this sounds just like the kind of FALSE PREMISES Craig labors under?
No? Reading this description, it only makes sense if you ignore reality
completely, and assume that "interactivity" is directly achieved on that
(one-way, oh, I forgot) 6 MHz broadcast channel.
Not so? Read the article and tell me this isn't the only way it makes sense. In
some magical way, the 6 MHz TV channel is the pipe that provides interactivity.
What is missing here is that the entire "interactivity" aspect of T-commerce is
occurring over an Internet, two-way link, between your TV set and ... maybe the
broadcaster? Or maybe the vendor of the product? Or maybe Amazon? In other
words, exactly like Internet shopping. You'll have to either enter your home
address and credit card number, over a secure two-way link, or these numbers
can be stored in the TV/computer and transmitted with a click of the
remote/mouse, or the numbers can be stored at the shopping site, just like it
is when shopping at Amazon. And any simplistic notion of "all it takes is a
backchannel" makes no sense, when you take into account the scaling problems of
sharing a tiny 6 MHz downlink, with potentially 10s of thousands of other
shoppers, at exactly the same time, during that ad break.
As to ease. Click with the remote? Big deal! How do you shop at Amazon, or any
other site, if not be clicking with your mouse? Almost the entire transaction
is done with mouse clicks, once your numbers have been stored on that site.
So for example, watching TV using a PC as set-top box, as I do, allows most of
this to happen today. True, there is no link you can click on the TV picture
per se, but it's easy enough to window the TV display, log on to whatever
shopping site, and order what you want, during the ad break.
Amazing how this obfuscation has been allowed to persist. It has to be
deliberate, right? We're back to the 1990s, when the same was going on wrt DTV
version 1.0.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.multichannel.com/next-generation-tv-expected-usher-new-era-t-commerce/414558
Next-Generation TV Expected To Usher in New Era of T-Commerce
ATSC 3.0 will help, but chase is already on to find viable options
8/14/2017 8:00 AM Eastern
By: Diana Marszalek
Next-generation broadcasting boasts any number of interactive capabilities.
Among its big advantages: It could make TV-based shopping - a.k.a. t-commerce -
so simple that even logging onto Amazon would feel like a drag.
It may take some time to perfect this. ATSC 3.0, the internet protocol-based
standard that would enable the platforms, is still at least several years from
rollout, and it could be five to 10 years before the breadth of TV-based
shopping opportunities are up and running.
Yet driven by the allure of audience engagement, as well as money-making
opportunities, station groups, industry advocates and advertisers are already
exploring ways to make buying stuff with a remote click the next big thing in
home shopping.
"I think there are activities you could see coming to be, when your advertising
will be your call to action," National Association of Broadcasters executive
vice president and chief technology officer Sam Matheny said. "Now your
television can be a point of purchase."
Interactive direct-response ads are among the most immediate opportunities, as
are spot ads that could allow consumers to do anything from purchase products
to access geotargeted information and discounts, industry leaders said.
Pearl TV, an industry group advocating next-generation TV, has been bullish on
the idea since testing in 2014. The group ran car ads in Phoenix, Philadelphia
and Chicago that included an interactive banner letting viewers schedule a test
drive or get a coupon for a particular car with a click. Consumers "responded
favorably," managing director Anne Schelle said.
ATSC 3.0 could transform shopping channels by enabling consumers to buy
products using their televisions, as opposed to computers or phone calls being
the points of purchase. Recently, the NAB partnered with HSN on a prototype
that brought the idea to life. Given the greater delivery capacity broadcasters
will have with next-gen TV, they could get into the home shopping business
themselves, or lease their channels to others, industry leaders said.
Under next-gen TV, station groups could offer local advertisers, particularly
those shut out from e-commerce due to costs and resources, the chance to get
into virtual sales via t-commerce platforms. Broadcasters will also have
increased opportunity to make their own sales, offering digital products, such
as movies or TV episodes, directly to viewers.
From there, the options are endless. Buying that dress an actress is wearing,
or that nifty gizmo shown on-screen, with a simple click would not be far off.
"There is no question that ATSC 3.0 was designed for that kind of
interactivity," Nexstar Media Group senior vice president and chief technology
officer Brett Jenkins said.
But there's no guarantee t-commerce is going to be an immediate hit either,
particularly when it goes beyond basic applications such as direct-response
advertising, Jenkins said.
Success, he added, depends on broadcasters implement the offerings using an
industry-wide standard, as consistency is key to consumer adoption.
TV-based shopping also has to be simple - both from a transactional and
psychological perspective. Just because technology may allow viewers to buy
products showcased in TV shows doesn't mean they will be in the mindset to do
it, he said. Second-screen initiatives, which allowed consumers to buy products
in a TV ad using a mobile app, for instance, had only marginal success, he said.
And home shopping is just one of the interactive activities that ATSC 3.0 will
give rise to, therefore competing for viewers' attention, industry experts said.
How much money broadcasters stand to make from t-commerce is the other wild
card in the mix - and it may be years before anyone even starts to get a grasp
on what kind of revenue TV-based shopping could bring in. "Right now people are
focused on what the possibilities are other than how they are going to monetize
it," Matheny said.
Yet advocates say it's all opportunity.
"While we don't have a number in mind for what personalization and
interactivity will add to the business, we do believe that advanced advertising
and interactive programming is a capability that will provide future value to
consumers and future revenue to broadcasters," Pearl TV's Schelle said. "It
will certainly help to have computers and broadcasting speaking the same
language."
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