Talk-back and talk-together TV -service concept and possibility of user acceptance

Rapidly emerging IP-based broadband technologies allow multimedia communications between viewers and TV broadcasting stations as well as among viewers. Talk-back and Talk-together TV systems provide new forms of interactive broadcasting services and enhance the current experiences of TV viewing. We first defined Talk-back and Talk-together TV systems and then analyzed their possible service scenarios for extracting required system functionalities. Furthermore, we carried out a Talk-together TV system experimental study that examined user reactions to the Talk-together TV sessions on quiz and soccer programs by connecting the subject viewers with different communication media; none, text-only, audio, audiovisual, physically together. The results indicate that there are future possibilities of user acceptance for the new TV services that utilize bidirectional multimedia links among viewers.