Fox, Andy (2019) Interactive television? A retrospective analysis of why red button content failed. Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 10 (2). pp. 203-215. ISSN 2040-4182

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Abstract

Interactive television was intended to provide the viewer with an enhanced experience of television. In the late 1990's and early 2000's both public service and subscription based television broadcasters provided the audience with a variety of 'interactive' applications. By 2012 most of the interactive applications had been either reduced in scale and ambition or withdrawn completely. This article is an overview of why the interactive television experiment failed. The methodological framework is a content analysis undertaken in the summer of 2012 which found a small amount of red button content supporting traditional broadcasts. The little found was either pre-existing content or entailed the button’s use as, effectively, the portal to a supplementary television channel. Moving forward the article provides a discussion on why the optimism that television could be an interactive experience in the early 2000's dissolved in a relatively short period of time. The conclusion is that interactive television did not fit the political economy of the media landscape.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.1386/jdmp.10.2.203_1
Additional Information:	Copyright Intellect LTD
Keywords:	audience participation; communication; content analysis; digital; media studies; multimedia; popular culture
Subjects:	Media
Depositing User:	Andy Fox
Date Deposited:	11 Jan 2019 14:17
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2024 15:59
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/5739

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