The imminent arrival of the iPad doesn’t just have magazine and book publishers scrambling to create more interactive apps and iPad ‘versions’, the big TV companies are also looking to the device with money in their minds.
Recent reports suggest many young people in digitally mature markets ‘co-browse’ i.e. they watch TV while interacting with social media on their laptops/netbooks. MTV is one of the first big TV networks to suggest that the iPad could become an ‘appendage that makes interactive TV a reality’.
MTV has already stated that it’s developing two types of apps for the iPad: co-viewing apps that capture social media chat around TV shows and awards shows; and apps for mobile video.
‘Interacting’ with TV shows by using social media services like twitter has become very common and popular and is growing exponentially. What TV networks in the US (and increasingly in Europe) are beginning to realise is that they must now follow and serve what their viewers are experiencing. Google TV’s partnership with Intel and Sony, for example, will integrate social networking and web-based applications with TV. Truly interactive TV will have vast implications for reality talent shows like the X-Factor, and [possibly] huge commercial potential. Is this the dawning of truly interactive TV?

You may also like: