Digital TV viewers should soon be able to respond to adverts by
pressing the red button on their remote controls. But this is not
one-click TV shopping; instead, it triggers an e-mail from the
advertiser, with a link to complete the transaction.
The application was developed by UK company Access to Audiences,
or
a2a
, for Interactive TV. CEO Nick Brown told OUT-LAW
that, for the time being, most people will not complete a
transaction on
TV
, albeit the technology exists.
"Complex buying processes won't work on
TV
," he said,
explaining the modem that comes with a Sky subscription runs – at
best – at about half the speed of a dial-up connection. "It's like
the web experience of about five years ago," he says.
Instead, Brown believes that customers want to bookmark a
product – be it a
CD
, a washing machine or a car – and
consider it later, to avoid interruption of
TV
viewing. A reminder of that interest will await the customer when
he next logs on.
A registration process will be necessary for first-time users:
an e-mail address needs to be supplied over the slow connection
before the advertiser knows where to send more information. The
user then gets a link to a site that he can visit at his leisure,
hopefully over a fast internet connection.
Brown says nobody else is offering a similar service to
a2a
. His company is acting as intermediary, initially
targeting those advertisers who want to reach Sky's eight million
viewers. Cable customers will follow. Freeview will not, at least
for the time being, because its set-top boxes currently do not have
modems.
It's not an end-to-end solution that
a2a
wants to
sell. "The sellers have their own web sites, their own transaction
and fulfilment systems," says Brown. Instead, what a2a is offering
is a medium for viewers to initiate contact more easily than
remembering a URL or phone number.
