Dear Readers:
For nearly a decade, the folks at DISH Network have been proving to the industry that interactive television was more than a dream. Scott Higgins, a favorite panelist of the TV of Tomorrow shows over the years, recently left the DISH Network family (and we hope to catch up with him very soon). So we decided to reach out to Bruce Eisen, DISH Network's VP of online content development and strategy, to catch up on what DISH Network is up to these days. Chris Kuhrt (manager, iTV programming), a key member of the DISH Network iTV team for seven years, joined the conversation.
The conversation went on for nearly an hour, so the full interview will run in the next publication of the itaas iWay Newsletter.
iTV Doctor: Bruce, you joined DISH Network in May 2009, following your work at Digital Advisors and CinemaNow. What brought you to DISH Network?
Eisen: DISH Network was an investor in CinemaNow, and they invited me to join them to help with strategy and to secure content for their new online service, www.DISHOnline.com.
iTV Doctor: So you came to DISH Network to handle programming and negotiate for content?
Eisen: I handle on-demand content across platforms--the STB and online--both as provided by the linear channels and standalone on-demand content.
iTV Doctor: I understand you are exploring Showtime's on-demand content 
as we speak. And of course, Showtime has an aggressive interactive presence on DISH Network.
Kuhrt: We have had Showtime Interactive up and running since before I got here in March, 2004.
iTV Doctor: That actually is emblematic of the history of DISH Network in iTV. You were interactive before interactive was cool. Pretty much anybody who wanted to do interactive with subscribers came to DISH Network, because you were the only guys doing it.
Kuhrt: We were the only ones who could offer synchronous, non-synchronous, and customized applications as well as two-way communications with things like RFI (Request for Information).
iTV Doctor: In all honesty, they weren't connecting their phone lines to go interactive, they were connecting their phone lines to order PPV, right?
Kuhrt: That is correct, but as time went along, subscribers connected their phone lines to use our customer support application to view and pay their bill on-screen, and we were the only distributor that provided that service. In fact, DISH Network is the only provider that makes that service available to the entire subscriber base today.
iTV Doctor: It's interesting that DISH Network's interactive work may be one of the best-kept secrets in the industry. Bruce, where do you see iTV going--what's your growth strategy for iTV on DISH Network?
Eisen: For us, it's much more strategic now. In the past it was more of a "one-off strategy." Yes, we have this interactive component, and we can do great things, but iTV didn't have a real strategic foundation at DISH Network. But now the plan is to tie interactive television with DISHOnline. Right now, subscribers can go to DISHOnline and manage their set-top box. In 2011, we want to go the other direction--moving content and viewer experiences from the set-top box over to the IP side of the world.
iTV Doctor: Let's talk about advertising. DISH Network is doing cooperative ad selling with DirecTV: the Advanced Satellite Advertising Platform (ASAP). Will we see a way that ASAP can enable interactive ads on both satellite providers? Let's say Ford has bought a run of advertising on ASAP, and we see a hunk of the Grand Canyon dropping into the back of a Ford pickup. So we have an ad that's been created, and the agency has a concept of how to make it interactive. How is that all handled?
Eisen: The advertiser (and their agency) will have one point of contact, but two separate building environments. Very similar user experience, but slight differences in look and feel.
Kuhrt: We have a large number of development partners for these projects. We can build in-house when we're using our templates--we ran recent campaigns for Victory Motorcycles and the US Postal Service that were templates, and were quick, easy and very effective. We linked to VOD clips that had been previously downloaded to the box, plus enabled the ability to request brochures and free sample packets (of USPS boxes).
We have a terrific team in place to deliver the end product: We do the QA with EchoStar's team, manage the bandwidth requirements and assets on our side, work with the development partners on the actual application, and then loop in the fulfillment agencies. And, of course, we have robust in-house viewer measurement capabilities. It is a very effective and efficient team.
We have a large footprint: DVR, non-DVR; IP-connected and non-IP connected. It's a complex delivery environment, but we work hard to make sure that the advertisers and programmers get maximum value and maximum results across the entire footprint.
iTV Doctor: One of the things DISH Network has been known for over the years is the ability to turn around interactive projects very quickly.
Kuhrt: That's true--we can turn some of our applications around in as little as a week.
iTV Doctor: OK, and speaking of time, we're just about out of it. But we'll certainly see you at TV of Tomorrow in May, right?
Eisen: You bet!
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The iTV Doctor is *Rick Howe*, who provides interactive television consulting services to programmers and advertisers. He is the recipient of a CTAM Tami Award for retention marketing and this year was nominated to Cable Pioneers. He is also the co-author of a patent for the use of multiscreen mosaics in EPG's. Endorsed by top cable and satellite distributors, "Dr" Howe still makes house calls, and the first visit is always free. His services include product development, distribution strategy and the development of low-cost interactive applications for rapid deployment across all platforms. Have a question for the iTV Doctor? Email him at itvdoctor@itvt.com
