An Investigation And Analysis Of The Demand, Use And Evaluation Of TV Interactive Business In New Media Environment

With the rapid development of new media technology, traditional media has also been changing greatly, such as interactive TV being an important a new trend in the transmission of traditional television industry. This paper targets the residents in Shanghai and uses in-depth interviews and focus group interviews to systemically analyze how they use the interactive television and how they feel about it. The study has came up with the following conclusions: the demand for the TV audience can be divided into two kinds of ’ritualized’ and ’instrumental’ with the former being more entertainment-like and the latter more information-seeking, which can be seen more often in the needs for interactive TV; comparing with individual needs, interactive TV reflects more of families needs; the demands for interactive TV contain both ’needs’ of basic cultural consumption and also ’wants’ which are driven by new media and marketing events. On the use of interactive television, although it’s well-known in Shanghai, it is under-utilized. Two functions being used most often are program review and order, while others are barely used. Audience is younger and highly-educated with interactive and personalized pattern of use. For the evaluation of interactive television services, viewers are satisfied with the contents, but not so much with the equipments. They have also made some imaginative expectations. Finally, this paper gives some advices based on the industry trends:to fully understand the needs of the audience and focus on subdivision of the seniors and youth; to solve the conflict of loyal, but elder people who don’t understand how to use the interactive TV with young, clever people who are not attracted to interactive TV; to simplify the complex and work on details and to develop new services and products.