Verizon setting interactive TV course

Part 2 of 2 – Read Part 1 Here

Verizon’s original move into interactivity – its now familiar Widgets – was based on standard XML and RSS technologies that enabled Verizon’s FiOS TV to include personalized sports, traffic, stock quotes and weather information as well as things such as local alerts.

That technology “created a lot of interesting use cases but has run the maximum level of its sophistication,” said Joe Ambeault, Verizon’s director of product development for consumer TV. For its next move into interactivity, Verizon is counting on three different technologies, each operating as a virtual machine on a set-top box, to deliver the next generation of interactive services.

“We didn’t pick one horse; we picked three, each of which is good at something different,” Ambeault explained.

Verizon is using EBIF (enhanced binary interchange format) which is a subset of Cable Labs’ Open Cable Application Platform, to deliver interactivity that is bound into the video programming. OCAP is the platform Cable Labs established for its OpenCable initiative to support interactivity including advertising, on cable systems. Verizon is also using a DVD virtual machine to deliver via its network a DVD-like experience. And, as explained in part one of this story, Verizon is using the Lua programming language to deliver activity that isn’t bound to video, such as its Widget Bazaar.

“We have a strong push into EBIF, which is a subset of the total OCAP standard,” Ambeault said. “Some call it OCAP light, but that’s not accurate. Its specific use for us is to allow interactivity to synchronize with video or interactivity bound with video. That is what we did with the Olympics last year, and it has all sorts of uses driving audience engagement content and, as well, advertising.”

Because this is a cable industry standard, OCAP set-top boxes are commercially available, and 20 million OCAP-capable set-top boxes will be in the market by the end of 2009, Ambeault said. “That is just another tool to drive interactivity,” he said.

Having the ability to watch a shopping channel and click to purchase is one example of EBIF-backed interactivity, Ambeault said. Others will be coming, but he is not predicting the kind of interactivity sometimes discussed and demonstrated, where a TV viewer sees an actress wearing a sweater and clicks on the sweater to buy it, Ambeault said.