Digital TV is television produced AND transmitted in digital format. It needs much less space than analogue signals. It gives much better technical quality. And it gives the viewers the possibility to interact with the TV.

Why is this of the enormous importance to communicators?

a) because you get many more ways of reaching the public

b) because you can now also do narrow-casting - meaning reaching
    a much smaller audience by targeting them particularly

c) because you canlet your communication be much more citizens-
    driven than before. Giving them a voice which you get and hear

d) because it is much more fun to communicate in this way

e) and because it is much cheaper than before

In other words it means this:

1) many more programmes can be broadcast (via cable, satellite, terrestial 
    and on mobile equipment)

2) production and esp. transmission will consequently be much cheaper
    than today

3) therefore, TV stations will be interested in more ideas and more input
    for programmes.

4) at the same time it will - with the many more stations and many more
    programmes be much more difficult to catch the attention of the
    audience

These dramatic changes are already happening. And almost all European countries have decided that a full switch-over from analogue to digital TV will happen in the years to come. Finland will do the full switch-over by August 2007, Sweden by the end of 2007, the UK between 2007 and 2012, etc.   It has been calculated that European countries by 2009 will have gone digital to a very large extent - with 93 % of all British households to 24 % in Portugal.

More on:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television  

BBC Digital:     http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/about  

A number of digital TV stations use the new possibilities of interaction with the viewers very actively.

Current TV:                    www.current.tv 

Worldmade Channel:     www.worldmadechannel.tv   

Citizens Channel / Internews Interactive:   www.citizenschannel.org 

Two Way TV:                 www.twowaytv.com            

How easy is it to produce digital added value to digital TV?  Not more difficult than producing input to a website on the Internet.

The Danish company Nordcom Interactive has in close cooperation with other companies in different European countries created a special browser for the open standard platform MHP  (Multimedia Home Platform).

 The goONie® browser:

The goONie® XHTML browser for the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standard enables Broadcasters and Network Operators to create content for Enhanced and Interactive Television using standard web tools. With the goONie® XHTML browser the process of creating enhanced and interactive services becomes similar to creating a website for the internet. The main difference is the display characteristics of the final media.

More info:  www.nordcom.dk   

What does this mean - seen from a communicator's point of view:

1) the material you already produced for your web pages can also
    be used directly for TV. Not necessary to produce them once
    more

2) the set-top boxes with the MHP (costing about 80 €) make
    interactivity possible (unlike set-top boxes without it)

3) the necessary bandwidth for transmitting public information via
    TV is very, very small (under 1 mb).

4) therefore, there is a strong case for arranging that public information
    is permanently also made available via digital TV.

   The effect of that could be further strengthened by some economic
   support for the purchase of these set-top boxes.

   This has with success been done in Italy in their eGovernment policy.
   Austria and Spain might be underway with similar initiatives.

   Such an initiative serves a further and a very important purpose:
   Public information will then also reach the people, who have no
   computer. The so-called digital divide will be made smaller.

Another form of modern TV aims at activating and engaging its viewers in society. Giving the voiceless a voice. Linking people to people elsewhere. And covering stories which are normally not covered by the mainstream TV station.

LINK TV  in the US is a very good example of that:

www.worldlinktv.org   

It is only a few years old, and it is now available - thanks to cable networks - to 25 % of the households in the US.

The station will most certainly use the new digital possibilities further in the months and years to come.

Other interesting actors in interactive and participation TV

OpenTV:        www.openTV.com 

Zone4Play:     http://www.zone4play.com/page.php?cat=228   

The next big step forward will be Interactive TV via the Internet.  A beta version is already running. It gives stunning results - with video on demand from hundreds of channels. It's a bit like satellite TV, but much better - free and with huge numbers of channels and clips on any subject. The commercial model will be pay-for and advertising.

With the new and must more powerful phones and 3G broadband access interactive TV will also soon role out on phones.  This is already the case in Japan.