The Evolution of TV Systems, Content, and Users Toward Interactivity

Interactive TV research spans across a rather diverse body of scientific subfields. Research articles have appeared in several venues, such as multimedia, HCI, CSCW, UIST, user modeling, media and communication sciences. In this study, we explore the state-of-the-art and consider two basic issues: What is interactive TV research? Can it help us reinvent the practices of authoring, delivering, and watching TV? For this purpose, we have reviewed the research literature, as well as the industrial developments and identified three concepts that provide a high-level taxonomy of interactive TV research: (1) content editing, (2) content sharing, and (3) content control. We propose this simple taxonomy (edit–share–control) as an evolutionary step over the established hierarchical produce–deliver–consume paradigm. Moreover, we demonstrate how each disciplinary effort has contributed to and why the full potential of interactive TV has not yet been fulfilled. Finally, we describe how interdisciplinary approaches could provide solutions to some notable contemporary research issues.