Football for the Ultimate Couch Potato

ABC Sports and ESPN.com tonight unveil an interactive Web site for people to view while watching the Florida State-Tennessee national championship game, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, on television. The site, a combination of additional information, a football prediction game and message center, is meant to be visited at the same time the person is viewing the game on TV. You can find the site by going to either ABC’s Web page (https://www.abc.com) or ESPN’s site (https://www.espn.com).

Company officials estimate that 20 million U.S. households have a TV and a personal computer in the same room and that half those households have at some time had the television on and been online simultaneously.

WebTV, a subsidiary of Microsoft, has run similar programming, although solely through the television, including a three-part interactive series with “Baywatch” earlier this year. Future revenue from this type of programming could come from advertising, pay-for-play arrangements and electronic commerce opportunities.

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