Interactions In Jeopardy!

How Mixed Signals Plays With the VBI

Besides broadcasters, several other entities stand to benefit from the much-hyped online versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune that began when the TV shows went interactive Oct. 4.

For Columbia TriStar Interactive (CTI), the new-media arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the addition of online audience interaction ought to boost demand for its already-popular program properties among telecasters.

For Microsoft-owned WebTV Networks, whose WebTV Plus set-top browser enables viewers to compete in the game shows as they're aired, the attraction of truly interactive TV might prove to be a long-awaited killer app. Currently, WebTV Plus and its simpler kin, the basic WebTV service, have 800,000 U.S. subscribers, who pay as much as $25 a month for the privilege of surfing from the couch. So far, true interactive TV via WebTV--or most other devices, for that matter--has been a slow build.

All of the entities involved, including Sony Electronics (which, along with other consumer-electronics manufacturers, sells WebTV boxes), are promoting the interactive aspect of the hit TV shows with a combination of broadcast, print and online ads, as well as sweepstakes with high-tech Sony products as prizes for viewers who submit their game scores online.

But one company has been overlooked in all the hoopla, one likely to benefit handsomely if interactive TV catches on: Mixed Signals Technology (MST), a Los Angeles-based think tank whose technology makes it possible for couch spuds to compete at the same time as each show's on-air contestants.

Here's how it works, as explained by president and CEO Alexandria Thompson. MST takes the questions, clues, correct and incorrect answers for the shows; codes them as text; then mixes them into the part of the TV signal that carries closed captioning. Closed captions are located at Line 21 of the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI), which is a series of 20 or 21 horizontal lines transmitted between the individual picture fields that make up TV programs. MST uses line 21 because closed captioning is government-mandated, Thompson said, and can't be stripped out of the program (as some cablecasters do with other parts of the VBI). Thus, the clues and answers travel intact with the show whether by broadcast, cable or satellite, either analog or digital. Of sharing the line with closed captioning, Thompson explained, "The text we code doesn't take up a lot of room in the line, but we do have to be careful that we don't overlap the closed captions."

Subscribers to WebTV's Plus service don't have to stay connected online through the entire broadcast. Thompson said the codes are downloaded to the set-top when the programs begin. After that, viewers can disconnect their modems and just click their answers to the WebTV Plus box as the show airs--commercials included. At the end of the show, viewers can reconnect online to upload their game scores to a server that registers them for the sweepstakes. Meanwhile, during the games, audience members play in real time. Thompson explained that viewers can respond to questions only in the time between when the clue is given and the first on-air contestant gives the correct answer.

What about time-shifting the games to a VCR for subsequent play? "The viewers can play along with the video, but unfortunately can't submit their scores," Thompson noted, explaining that the server only accepts scores for a limited time after the telecast.

If interactive TV through WebTV Plus catches on, there wouldn't be any lack of shows should programmers establish interactive game-show channels. "We can encode all the old Jeopardy! shows, for example," said Thompson. "We just pick up the existing closed captions, mix in the clue and answer data, and give interactive tapes to the broadcaster." Given the vast catalog of old TV quiz-shows, MST might be very busy with the repurposed-reruns business.

COPYRIGHT 1999 BPI Communications, Inc.
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