Obviously, blather like that won’t wise up the boob tube one iota. But then, adding interactivity for entertainment isn’t what sets the broadcasters’ blood churning. The real thrill is the possibility of consumers buying stuff without budging from the potato couch. Even a piece of this action could jack up network revenues. How will it work? WebTV programming VP Stacy Jolna talks of a Grammy show in the future: ““If Aerosmith wins for the best vocal group, you can click on the screen and get a profile of the band, or a list of their CDs. You can order the CD, or buy Aerosmith baseball caps. Or see where they’re touring and get a map of the venue to pick your seats.''
That’s OK for rockers with money to burn, but what about those who just want to watch a supercharged version of TV? Maybe the answer lies in letting outsiders add the extra content. Call them ParaSites, feeding on the bloated carcass of traditional television.
With ParaSites, the real fun of watching the Grammy show on CBS might be provided by Joan Rivers’s catty comments on the E! Web site. Or, if you like, Joan Jett’s remarks on MTV’s Internet digs. Best of all, imagine putting up your own companion site, with a camera aimed at you, ““Wayne’s World’’ style, as you mercilessly dis the best-new-artist choice. To accompany ““Monday Night Football,’’ you might choose from ABC’s official feed, Sports Illustrated’s site or even an offshore Net gambling site that lets you bet on each play.
The good news is that the new WebTV box can support something like this right now, albeit in a manner bonded by the digital equivalent of Elmer’s glue. Designers can engineer sites with open space for the picture-in-picture broadcast window. Viewers can then open the Web sites with phone connections, filling the video window with the appropriate TV channel. A similar approach might also work with PCs equipped with cards that act as TV tuners.
Will broadcasters welcome outsiders who provide content side by side with their own, even selling ads that stay on the screen? Doesn’t seem likely. But if the idea takes off, these ParaSites might provide sufficient innovation and variety to broker the marriage that no one has figured out how to arrange: the true union of finger-twitchy Internet and soft-snoozing television. As WebTV’s Jolna admits, ““We’re making this up as we go along.''
