GATINEAU – Rogers Cable customers will see some additional interactivity coming to their digital set top boxes in 2010 in the form of multimedia content format Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF).
On Monday in front of the CRTC when talking about new technology with commissioners, Rogers Communications’ vice-president of video product management David Purdy noted the cable company will roll out EBIF applications by mid 2010.
EBIF-driven applications work on any generation of set top boxes and will let Rogers, as well as broadcasters if they choose, enable “real time interactive applications in 30-second commercials in linear broadcasting,” noted Purdy.
So, for example, during a commercial, an icon would pop up prompting viewers to use their remote to find out more information on a product and even perhaps automatically order a catalogue or coupon with their remotes. Used this way, it’s a form of digital direct marketing and would bring added value to the advertiser (and hopefully added revenue to the broadcaster).
Or, it can be used to add enhanced, interactive applications like multimedia web-type pages to the TV.
Watch for more on this story in 2010 from Cartt.ca.
