Although Americans can’t use their remotes to actually vote in November, pay-TV providers are helping them make decisions.
From daily poll questions users can answer with their remotes to video-on-demand content that will feature highlights from the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer, interactive-TV applications are playing a role in the presidential elections.
Perhaps the most aggressive player in the space is Douglas County-based Dish Network. The nation’s second-largest satellite-TV provider is offering Dish Decision 2008, an interactive-television portal. The company rolled out the first phase of its project in early January with a short quiz subscribers could take to help them better pick a candidate.
“It gave subscribers the opportunity to decide which issues were important to them and what candidates are aligned to them,” said Michael Kelly, executive vice president of Dish Network.
The feature is provided on Dish Home, Channel 100.
Now the company is offering information about candidates’ positions on various topics, such as immigration and health care. Dish also is letting users express their feelings through a daily poll.
“It’s a service to our subscribers to help them be better informed,” Kelly said.
The interactive Dish Network channel also allowed users to watch six news channels on a single screen on Super Tuesday this month. Kelly said the company will roll out another Dish Decision feature in coming months that builds upon the services already offered.
But while providers said that these features are simply an extra treat for subscribers, Jimmy Schaeffler, senior multichannel analyst for the Carmel Group, said these interactive offerings are primarily about retention.
“It’s all about advanced services that allow (providers) to differentiate themselves,” he said. “People may not sign up for the service for them, but they may stay with the service.”
Comcast, Colorado’s largest cable provider, does not offer the same kind of interactive features as Dish, but its CN8 private-network channel has launched election-event coverage, with primary coverage and programming about the various campaigns.
CN8 is not available in Colorado. But viewers here can look to the company’s video-on- demand service to find additional election content, said Comcast Colorado spokeswoman Cindy Parsons.
“We are still in the process of evaluating exactly what type of election content will be available across Comcast’s platforms, for example via the cable networks, on demand, or our consumer website, ,” she said.
Although video-on-demand services are labeled “interactive” because users are able to choose specific programming using their remote, it greatly differs from Dish Network efforts that “target” users with special banners on the screen guiding them to click to enter the polling or informative windows, said Ian Olgeirson, senior analyst for SNL Kagan, a research firm.
Despite having the technical capability, Comcast lags on the latter kind of interactivity, he said, noting that the services are often hard to make money on. Olgeirson said cable operators Time Warner, Cablevision and Cox are offering some form of this interactive content.
“I don’t think Comcast is in a position to deliver that on a broad basis. It’s just a matter of focus,” Olgeirson said.
