When editorial and advertising collide.(interactive television, new media)(Brief Article)

Instead of asking what the traditional TV industry hasn't done for the growing interactive TV sphere, perhaps we should look at it from the perspective of what it has done.

The web was such a new technology to most people that they were initially Deborah Bonello reasonably forgiving of things such as slow download times, clunky browsers and other technical difficulties. But the public has been using the TV for years, albeit passively. Now that they have the chance to interact with it and its advertising, attitudes are likely to be far less forgiving of cumbersome technology and technical hitches. Hence the general lambasting of most of the interactive TV advertising to date, and the general disdain within the industry to the reaction of the existing media regulators.

The Independent Television Commission has bowed to public pressure and in recent weeks issued its own guidelines on the regulation of interactive TV. This is good news. But the watchdog's good intentions are ambiguous. It is sticking to what it knows best -- the broadcast stream -- and largely washing its hands of interactive services such as Open and ONdigital.

The regulator is also putting its foot down ...