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CONNECTED ENTERTAINMENT
sold in the two months following its launch in November 2010.
Yahoo! Connected TV’s Russ Schafer: “The TV sector is ready for Broadcast Interactivity”
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In the new-media universe, we are talking less about content protection and more about new opportunities and monetisation
Yahoo!, the once dominant searchengine operator, is also making significant inroads into connected TV after introducing its Yahoo! Connected TV platform three years ago. That original platform had widgets that allowed audiences to use the websites of major content-owners and the social media-networks Facebook and Twitter on TV. In January, Yahoo! introduced Broadcast Interactivity, which empowers content-owners to create their own apps. This allows viewers and advertisers to interact in real time, and viewers to interact with shows, make online purchases, or request information about programmes. The pilot programme begins with US broadcast and cable networks ABC, CBS, HSN (Home Shopping Network) and Showtime.
Andy Nobbs
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Explaining why the TV sector is ready for Broadcast Interactivity, Russ Schafer, senior director of product marketing at Yahoo! Connected TV,
Sony: part of the connected TV ‘invasion’
says: “Millions of consumers globally bring a mobile phone or PC into the living room while watching TV, so the desire to combine internet content with TV is there.” TV sets featuring the Yahoo! platform
are expected to be in about eight million homes internationally by now. To ensure interoperability among the different hardware and software tools, a cross-industry consortium called DECE (Digital Entertainment