Interactive Podcasting and the Future of Internet TV

“Interactive Podcasting” is a term that has yet to be uttered by the podcast masses. However, in its early stages it poses a direct threat to the DVD special features market and as it grows it will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we watch television forever.

What is “interactive podcasting”, you may be wondering.

In an article I wrote a few months ago I made this statement,

“In my opinion, podcasting is the genesis of video internet technology. That is, the fusion of what we know as the ‘internet’ and today’s broadcast, cable, or satellite programming. It has long been argued that the internet and television would one day be one in the same. But not much has been said about how this transition will play out, into a new future of “Informational Entertainment” or “Intelligent Programming.”

Video podcasting has opened the floodgates for Internet television to compete directly with traditional television. In the next few years, companies like Microsoft and others have already introduced home TV set-top boxes, which transmit Internet broadcasts directly to the televisions in your home. This is the birth of Internet TV at home in its purest form.

Everybody has one or two DVDs, right? If not, at least you’ve seen one, I hope. Now when you put a DVD in the machine and turn it on, it takes you to a menu screen. This menu screen gives you options to choose from such as scenes, extras, director’s cut, etc. These extras are big draws for DVD sales, like Shrek, Star Wars, etc. The reason they are such a big hit is because they put the power of choice in the hands of the user. Whichever you choose, the DVD will follow and play.

So what if podcasting had the ability to implement “user choices”? What if you were watching a video podcast and had the ability to choose different features of that podcast by simply hovering over the screen and choosing your option? What if you had the ability to modify and control video, with the same user applicability that you can on a web page or search engine?

Podcasting has just ventured into the video phase, where everyone from amateur producers to multi-billion dollar media companies are scrambling to figure out how to make this medium useful and, of course, profitable. So as the medium evolves, the user will demand more from the industry, and a response will be absolutely necessary to make digital media as viable and powerful as DVD and VHS tapes once were.

The answer that society will need is to make digital content as interactive as a physical product would be, and then some.

Because what good is the new “Pirates of the Caribbean Movie” being sent to your home set-top box, if you can’t choose to see how they produced that spectacular new sword-fighting scene you heard about?

Right now, podcasting is the first step in the direction of Internet television, it has opened the door for subscription-based technology to thrive on the Internet. And that is the birth of cable television over the Internet in its purest form. So as the podcast masses start to grow into millions upon thousands and millions of viewers per podcast show, the industry will start adding user options to their shows, and these options will be interactive in nature.

For example, let’s say you’re watching a popular video podcast like What I Want Fitness (http://www.WhatIWantFitness.com). This show features personal training tips from an instructor, and during the session you’re watching, you see a particular exercise that you really liked and would like to see more variations on. So what if you could take your mouse and click on the trainer’s biceps, and by doing so, the screen would bring up a list of biceps exercise programs that are available, as well as text about the structure of the biceps muscle? You could then instantly jump to a new biceps exercise, or perhaps click on the text to learn a bit more about the muscle you’re training.

Now this is a very simple example, but very true to the power of interactive podcasting and eventually interactive iTV. Podcast shows that start to implement these features will attract a high response rate from viewers, where a show will be able to modify its programming in direct relation to the data and feedback it receives from its viewers. This will only improve programming in the future. If 75% of viewers choose to watch endurance-related exercises, then the show will be able to pull that data from web statistics and implement the changes to better serve their audience in the next show.

As this power is implemented by the world’s major media conglomerates, Internet television will take off and the merger of television and the Internet will have occurred.

You see, until the practical applicability of interactive programming is highlighted, Internet television will not see its true potential. But once it catches on, Interactive Podcasting will be seen as the birth of this revolution in media delivery.

Now, if we could get browsers to stay up to date and give us the support we need at the xhtml level.