Adding interactive services in a Digital Video Broadcasting network

Television (T)-Commerce is not just a buzzword. Consumer and Business demands for Multi-Media services have led to a proliferation of solutions that provide a wide range of services such as digital television, Internet Connectivity, Hidden-Programme Placements and others. Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) networks which employ the MPEG-2 compression and the transmission standard are used for digital television. Advancements in the network infrastructure as well as in the Set-Top Box technology have led to advanced service models which enables the user to interact actively with the linear presentation model as offered in a broadcasting environment. This paper provides a technological overview of how interactivity can be added to a DVB network. Various scenarios are presented with a different level of interactivity. Accompanied to each scenario the user and the content provider issues are also briefly discussed. The final part attempts to predict a vision on how interactivity in a television environment could look in ten years.