ABSTRACT
Interactive TV (iTV) is an area that has progressed in fits and starts, and has suffered significant setbacks over the years. Video on demand (VOD), in which viewers can order movies or other video content from their TV sets or devices connected to the Internet. The BBCs Red Button service proved to be enormously popular across all demographics during the 2012 London Olympics. Red Button offered multiple video streams of the events and each stream attracted at least 100,000 viewers. Pretty Little Liars, a teen drama, employs a more conventional, but highly successful approach to social TV. It would be nice to think that interactive TV, like the fictional Cisco, could move through a character arc and could metamorphose from an unsure adolescence into a more mature and dependable entity, capable of supporting strong artistic visions. Certainly, people can find some hopeful indications that this day is coming.
