Interactive TV test expands to WMUR, WJAR

In May, WVCB in Boston agreed to trial new interactive TV technology from Backchannel Media. Through Backchannel’s set-top box software, viewers click on various prompts via their remote control for more information. And then they visit a “personal portal” of sorts online, where the information is displayed. Now WMUR and WJAR are joining the trial. “It’s not the first attempt at interactivity,” Bill Fine, president and general manager at WCVB, said of Backchannel, “but this one has more potential than any I’ve heard of.” But like any new TV-based technology, mass adoption will only come when the major cable and satellite companies roll it out as a standard feature (or increasingly, IPTV and the gaming platforms.) So stay tuned…