Interactive TV (iTV) has for decades been talked about and tried, yet for all the vision, relatively little has occurred during the past couple of decades.

That is about to change.

New emphasis on the set-top box (STB) and its functionality, such as the improvements being instituted by DISH Network in its new “Hopper” Digital Video Recorder (DVR) STB, are also inviting new interactions, two-way, with every end-user.

The Carmel Group has thus followed and stayed atop these iTV developments, having also covered it as a topic in studies, reports, and at several conferences during the past several years.

Indeed, perhaps the best barometer of iTV is the transition of video to mobile devices, which are essentially two-way computers with video capability, meaning both mobile and two-way video collide to make iTV a reality forever.

As members of The Carmel Group travel the world, they see more and more how mobile becomes more and more a part of how people live their personal and  business lives.

Along with Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), currently one of the two hottest of the so-called a killer applications, is that of video content being delivered to mobile devices. Programmers and Hollywood studios are looking to build advertising and subscription pay models that monetize delivery to anything anytime to anyone anywhere. That is the new telecom mantra that is quickly becoming a new telecom standard.

Moreover, as the fourth leg in the group of bundled services offered by telecom and cable operators, mobile services gain more and more credibility within the multichannel space. Studies and analyses by The Carmel Group continue to delve into and dissect these complex relationships, aimed at better understanding and explaining the underlying fundamentals they are being built upon.