The brave new world of interactive TV

Help! There’s so much technological advancement around me that I can’t keep up! While I know how to text (hurray!), I belong to the minority group that does not have an e-mail address to this day. (How I envy the writers of this paper who publish their e-mail addresses at the end of their columns and articles.)

Actually, I have an account with Philworld and I’ve paid for it. Unfortunately, not even the computer geniuses there could reprogram my supposedly "internetable" laptop which I bought from a kumpare from ABS-CBN. Now, I don’t even know if I can still get a refund from Philworld.

Miraculously, I get by in this life – and especially in this profession – even without an Internet provider. But I have to run from time to time to my technologically-advanced friends for information that I can’t get in my personal library.

Next year, however, I plan to move to a new place and I have promised to subscribe to an Internet provider. Better yet, I’m trying out interactive TV or ITV. It was my friend, Jeanette Gatmaitan Reyes, who introduced me to this kind of service.

So what is ITV? ITV actually allows you to watch regular TV shows, but at the same time enables you to use your remote control to click onto additional information. If, for instance, you are watching the Oscar Awards and you want to know where Tom Cruise had his tuxedo made, ITV provides you with an icon which you can click to get information about Cruise’s tux (price, designer, etc.). Now, if you want to get one for yourself and purchase it on your credit card, you can place your order without even leaving your room – thanks to the wonders of interactive TV.

For sports – like the NBA – ITV will provide you with details about a particular player, current standing and even select your own camera angle while watching the game. It also allows you to trade stock, do banking and shop just within the confines of your home.

Here in the Philippines, interactive TV is being introduced into the local market by the Dream Broadcasting Systems, Inc. through a partnership with Magic Box Holdings Ltd. Dream offers three monthly packages: At P350 a month, you can avail of the local VHF channels (ABS, GMA, etc.), UHF (Studio 23, CTV 31, etc.), local and foreign movies (Hallmark, Viva, etc.), Star Sports, the Cartoon Network, etc.

At P550, you can have all those already mentioned plus CNN, Fox News, ABC Asia Pacific, Turner Classic Movies, ESPN, the Disney Channel, etc. For P750, you can have those two packages mentioned – plus seven more channels which brings you 47 channels in all.

A Dream Satellite TV subscription may entirely substitute your current cable subscription. However, since Dream may not have exactly the same programming as your existing cable TV service provider, you have the option of maintaining both subscriptions. The edge of Dream over the cable companies is that it can provide service to cable TV subscribers in areas cable networks cannot cover. Dream also boasts of digital quality.

It’s just too bad that the Dream Broadcasting System doesn’t have Internet services yet – at least, not yet. But then, with what they call the Dream-Magic system, there are other similar services that may be provided: interactive games, news from Inq 7, Elle beauty and health tips and astrology.

In Asia, the Philippines has been made the launching pad of Magic’s interactive service. (To inquire about this kind of service, call tel. no. 9188000 or visit their website, www.dream.com.ph) This kind of technology will soon move to other Asian nations like Thailand, India, Malaysia and China.

In the US, the UK and other European countries, interactive technology is already in full swing. In America, in fact, the US government has recently ordered all TV set manufacturers to make all their products fully digital by 2010 for consumers to enjoy this kind of service.

That’s not too far from now. And soon, everything will be digital here in the Philippines. This leaves me with no choice but to embrace fully the wonders of modern technology.