Proposed BCE/CTV channel aims for complete convergence of TV, Internet

A proposed digital TV channel hopes a new video technology will make it stand out from the pack of applicants currently before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for new specialty TV licences (CNM, April 20/00). DGNet, one of a large crop of CTV/BCE proposals, is enticing commissioners with a new format and signal distribution method called Alternate Format Video (AFV). Unlike several DTV proposals which add a website to the traditional broadcast mix, DGNet is dangling a completely interactive carrot before the commission, promising an open TV video network that will allow viewers to send and receive broadcast video. The AFV system is the centrepiece in an application promoting the proposed channel’s technology-oriented programming over a combined Internet/TV platform. DGNetProgramming HighlightsThe content for this fully integrated interactive service will be 58% Canadian in year one, rising to 75% in year seven of the licence term. Original content will include Switched On, a how-to program designed to be accessible to the uninitiated and the web-savvy; Wired Women, a co-production for smart women by smart – wired – women; ScavEngine, a family scavenger hunt of the Net; to Digital Palette, a weekly look at how digital technologies have revolutionized the art world. The signature show, called Digital Desk, is a daily look at the world of technology, ecommerce, e-culture and e-entertainment with a regular, critical look at information on the World Wide Web, how it got there, how valid it is and how far it can be trusted.DGNet is being billed in CTV’s Category 1 application as "the network that assumes that the post-convergence world is already here". Besides a strong focus on Internet-related programming such as the widely-known Digital Desk show, the station says it will use as many new Internet technologies in the making of its programs as possible. That includes using virtual studios to ensure the Internet is not just an adjunct, but the platform over which programming is delivered to both the PC and television. AFV, for example, will allow viewers and producers to transmit video over the ‘Net that will be incorporated into the station’s programming. Under questioning from commissioners, station executives conceded however that a fully converged broadcast won’t be a reality until a new generation of set-top boxes hits the market sometime in late 2002. Ken Murphy, president of the Discovery Channel (another CTV applicant) told the hearing August 15 that while the technology will exist by 2001 to flip between web pages and a TV signal, it won’t allow for complete convergence. "What we know will have to happen," said Murphy, "is a second generation box will be required 12 months hence, two months hence. It’s difficult to pin down where those two programming streams in fact are interlaced, synchronized and overlaid." As another example of interactivity, station executives spoke about a new program called The Games Show which would enable the audience to participate in video games in a virtual studio. Other programming would include technology-related feature movies, documentaries and Internet-related news and information. DGNet’s application before the CRTC has highlighted a critical element of the commissioners’ lines of questioning. Interactivity has been front and centre throughout the licensing hearings as commissioners struggle to understand how it will figure in the new programming line-up. So far, the sometimes befuddled commissioners have heard interactivity can include chat rooms, ecommerce, multiple camera angles and alternate endings to plot-lines. It’s uncertain how high a priority the commission will place on interactivity in deciding which applicants receive a licence.

Proposed BCE/CTV channel aims for complete convergence of TV, Internet

News | 08/23/2000 4:00 am EDT

To keep reading, get a free trial.

Already a Subscriber?

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us