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about document formats.The broadcasting industry is on the brink of a change as significant as the introduction of the VCR: The Internet in general, and World-Wide Web (www) in particular, promise to revolutionize the distribution of information - and perhaps even entertainment.Businesses involved in broadcasting - particularly the broadcasters themselves - should plan for an upheaval.
This is an edited version of an invited paper that I presented at International Broadcasting Symposium '95, Broadcasting in the Multimedia Age, Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 1995. The paper was published in the Proceedings of that conference, p. 285-290.
When this paper was written, I was on leave of absence from Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. I now live and work in Toronto, Canada.
The title was taken from the session that I chaired at the conference. The title suggests a passive viewer experience, which is I suppose what Japanese broadcasters - perhaps all broadcasters - would prefer over active viewers. It was at this conference that a certain large broadcasting organization introduced the term, "one-way interactive." At the time, I thought it quite humerous. Now, though, the Digital TV Team (Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq), with their push technology, are essentially proposing one-way interactive service.
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