Interactive television : a reality in construction : report to the Consell Audiovisual de Catalunya

This article presents a summary of a reserach report into the state of interactive television and the different systems for interaction with television developed by the regulating authority in Catalonia (Spain). The context of the study is the European continent and it covers theoretical, tecnological and programming issues. The autors propose an operayive definition of interactive television as a tool for developing their field of study and an original typological proposal than can classify and analyse the whole range of the present offer of interactive programs and services. Also presented throughout the article is an analysis of the different interactive services in the European continent. To end, the authors propose a whole series of recommendations for the regulating authority as measures for promoting theses types of services and applications, with particular emphasis on the role that Digital Terrestrial Television could play as a universalizing platform for access to the new services of the Information Society. Mention is made of the specific case of Catalonia as an example of the measures that should be observed for the full and integrated development of the services that are generically known as interactive television