Interactive TV Is Currently Boxed In by Equipment Constraints

Warner Bros. has produced its first interactive game show. Lexus plans a series of interactive commercials. And NBC says it will spice up the summer rerun season with an interactive sweepstakes.

The average viewer, however, won’t experience any of this new programming. Each of these initiatives requires different pieces of equipment that the vast majority of homes don’t have.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem for interactive TV today. Programmers and set manufacturers have yet to settle on a standard for delivering and displaying pop-up windows, overlaid graphics and other enhancements that can be added to a TV signal. The result has been a balkanized world of interactive TV, with various camps built up around competing devices and technologies.

The Warner Bros. game show is “Street Smarts,” a product of its Telepictures Productions studio.

Working with Mixed Signals Technologies of Culver City, Warner Bros. New Media developed a way for viewers to play along with “Street Smarts” through their TV sets in May and June.

To do so, the companies came up with software that could run on a powerful set-top box connected to a TV, as well as a way to synchronize that software with the “Street Smarts” broadcasts.

No precise numbers are available on how many of these boxes are in homes today, but it probably is less than 1 million. Most are built around Microsoft’s WebTV Plus or UltimateTV products.

“Street Smarts,” however, won’t play on the Microsoft boxes. It’s designed to work only on Philips boxes with AOLTV, an Internet-on-TV service from Warner’s corporate sibling, America Online.

Warner Bros. officials describe the effort as a toe-in-the-water kind of thing, with future efforts aimed at larger potential audiences. Given that they chose AOLTV, it would have been hard for them to start any smaller.

Lexus’ interactive commercials, meanwhile, are designed to work only on the 200,000 or so personal TV recorders that use technology from TiVo Inc. The commercials will flash a small symbol on screen, inviting viewers to record programs or sports events sponsored by Lexus.

NBC’s announcement might have been the most quixotic of the three because the network is relying on a device not found in any homes.

Working with Digital:Convergence Corp. of Dallas, the network plans to run a series of interactive promotional spots for NBC shows through July 11. To experience the interactivity, viewers will need to connect their TVs to computers equipped with special software, using either a cord or a wireless transmitter and receiver.

The software and equipment are available at Radio Shack, either for free (the version with the cord) or for $20 (the wireless version).

Why would anyone bother? Because Digital:Convergence is providing more than $400,000 in prizes, including cars, frequent-flier miles, computers and TV sets.

John Miller, president of the NBC Agency, the network’s in-house advertising agency, views the effort as an experiment in using the Web to boost TV viewing.

And for Digital:Convergence, which also has deals with Home & Garden Television and CNBC, it’s a chance to build an audience and attract networks to its technology.

The cord might be free, but many consumers are already chagrined by the kudzu of cables sprouting from their computers and home-entertainment centers. Digital:Convergence might have to finance giveaways on a few more networks before the couch-potato masses go for convergence by cord.

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Times staff writer Jon Healey covers the convergence of entertainment and technology.