Defining Interactive Television

You may use this content, but please cite (c) 2005, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein.

How do I define interactive television? Well, here's a definition I'd love to get some feedback on. I think it needs work:

Interactive television (iTV) is not one service. It represents a continuum of services from very limited interactivity (such as using a remote for TV power, volume and channel control) to more moderate interactivity (such as using an electronic program guide to search for programs), to more sophisticated levels of control recently made available by personal video recorders. An irreversible trend has become quite clear in the last few years: the control of television programs is moving away from the program provider and into the hands of the viewer. Two-way interactive television is yet another example of iTV, but it implies more complexity and modifications in viewer behaviors than do other iTV services.

I define interactive television to be hardware and accompanying software that incrementally increases the audience member's ability to control their viewing experience through content selectivity and/or use of real-time feedback channel(s) to the program (or other) origination site.