AOL Bales At Last from TV - Cessation Of Stupidity
How long is it since clever marketing people, in complete misunderstanding of the interaction between us and our information technologies, started pushing the idea of Interactive TV. usually this meant that we would be given some options even more mind numbing than the actual programmes but occasionally worked up to the frenzy of being able to "be our own producers" selecting the shots WE wanted from today's game etc etc. Occasionally it worked up to the heights of "Video on Demand" until the realities of the technology began to set in.

The realities being the kind generated by Napster, Kazaa, ReplayTV and TiVo which put the fear of God into the media business as they watched their one real commodity, control of our attention, disappear.

AOL came at the idea from the other end, the Internet end, but the result is the same, oblivion. America Online confirms end of AOLTV

The reality is that without control of our attention, TV is a zero, the quality of content is legendary but it works for the same reason that cigarettes work. Nicotine really does give a lift, it temporarily quells anxiety and imparts a feeling of wellbeing while it eats your lungs. That's what we want of a drug and the people who are most likely to use it are those whose lives are marginally depressing. TV is the other end of that spectrum and takes over the focus of consciousness, relieving us of all thought, and is equally the drug of mild depression. Some recent research indicates that the more depressed you are, the longer it takes you to shift attention from the TV. But depressed people don't want to interact with things and even less do they want to "buy the shirt that Tom cruise is wearing while he..."

Interactive TV is an oxymoron, partly because of its function in our lives and partly because the networks have utterly no intention of permitting their viewers to have any say whatever over substantive matters to do with their communication.

The Internet however, is for active people, who DO interact with the network, you don't GET another screen unless you interact, and most of us go a LOT further, joining and contributing to listservs, blazing away on discussion groups, chatting and now, Blogging. The Internet is actually for engaged, active, thoughtful, demanding people; no wonder the media and entertainment people keep getting creamed by it.