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PC/TV / WILL THE INTERACTIVE MEDIUM INFORM THE MASSES?

By David Hakala. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Call it a couch potato's dream: One click of the remote control and you're watching "Another World" on your TV screen. A second click and you're reading the bio of the show's newest heartthrob on http://www.worldlink.ca/awhp/awhp.html. A third click checks your e-mail, then you're back to your favorite TV soap.

What some industry experts are calling a possible "new age in television" is expected to greet viewers this fall as a growing coalition of television, computer and Internet interests gears up to finally bring a form of "interactive TV" to the television screen in your living rooms. It will arrive - via the Internet - through either an Internet-enabled computer built directly into your television set or a set-top converter box provided by your cable TV operator. Either way, costs are expected to be dramatically less than the $2,000 or so you might sink into a computer to do the same job.

By October, experts say, you'll be able to use your remote control to surf the Web, send and receive e-mail, pay your bills, order groceries, read the bios of your favorite sitcom stars, see where Peter Jennings got his latest factoid and more, while not missing a second of "Seinfeld."

But some critics say you should be wary of geeks bearing gifts. "It's hard to know which makes less sense - trying to use the computer as a television or vice versa," says Daniel Dern, founding editor of Internet World and self-styled "Internet curmudgeon." "I don't think we've established whether being on the 'Net with TV is productive for text messaging and discussions, although it may be viable for weather, catalog browsing, etc."

On the bright side, Dern says, "it'll probably be harder to lose the wireless keyboard behing the sofa cushions..."

Some types of interactive TV also are being designed to record which television shows you watch, which Web sites you visit, which cereals you buy, which politics you follow and who you correspond with. If your cable TV service also provides Internet access, the cable operator will know what pages you receive during which TV programs, and how you react.

For example, if you're watching a political debate between two candidates, with a Web page displayed in a picture-in-picture window, you might click on one candidate's "more info" link. There might be an online poll asking which candidate you'd vote for - and your vote would go straight to the cable operator. From there, it could well end up on the candidate's mailing list, complete with address and phone number provided by your cable operator.

Of course, the people behind PC/TV don't put things in quite this Orwellian light.

THEY PAINT themselves as the saviors of the "information have-nots," the 90 percent of U.S. households that do not have the means to access the Internet.

"We're breaking the logjam that has kept the evolution of interactive services out of all but a select few homes," says Ed Bliss, president of InterActive Digital Solutions. Among the benefits "virtually anyone" will be able to receive through interactive TV, Bliss lists "advertising tailored to their interests, and [the ability to] order everything from a pizza to jewelry via their television."

While a 486 PC and a 28.8 Kbps modem can easily cost more than $1,500, and a year's worth of Internet access another $240 or more, the various PC/TV makers hope to lower these costs to $500 or less.

One school of PC/TV thought puts most of the hardware in your cable TV operator's hands. Worldgate Communications' TV On-Line product is a good example (its Web site is http://www.tvol.com). For an additional $4.95 a month, cable TV subscribers get a wireless keyboard that communicates with a cable converter box. With this system, users won't have to install a modem or software, tie up a phone line or even find more space in the entertainment center to jump on to the Internet.

But there is a downside to TV online (and similar systems that put most of the computer at your cable operator's location): There's no disk drive on which to save software or e-mail, though you can plug in a printer, and you need a cable TV service that supports TV On-Line. Right now, Worldgate is recruiting cable operators.

Other PC/TV products don't rely on cable operators.

For instance, the WebTV system offers a set-top box that transmits Web pages and other Internet content on the unused portions of the signals carried by broadcast TV programs. Magnavox and Sony are developing consumer products - to be released this fall - that use WebTV technology.

Installation of WebTV is a plug-and-play matter. Plug the box into your TV, a phone line and a power source - you're off and surfing. A handheld controller similar to Sega and Nintendo game controllers serves as a mouse, providing navigation and execution of simple commands.

The Internet content is carried to the user on a normal broadcast signal, much like the closed-caption text that accompanies many TV programs. You can watch just the program, or press a button on the controller to display the program's Web page.

You also can view both the program and the Web page at the same time, though keeping up with both may be challenging. "It will be important for programers to structure their Internet content to avoid confusing viewers," acknowledged Len Aupperle, president of Hauppauge Digital, another maker of interactive TV equipment.

OK, so you can view Web pages, e-mail and other things coming your way, but how do you get to the Yahoo! home page? The user interacts with the Internet via a conventional dial-up modem connection. It's not much different from watching the Home Shopping Network while calling its toll-free line - except you don't have to talk in order to order. The WebTV box contains a high-speed modem and all the "intelligence" needed to connect users to the WebTV Network, a proprietary online service whose pricing will be revealed in the fall.

The WebTV network expects to persuade TV-show producers to add "in-depth" Internet information about episodes, stars, news and, of course, advertisements to their broadcast programs. The WebTV network will then make money from its subscribers as they interact with the Internet through the online service.

One benefit of WebTV is that you don't need a cable subscription. Another - as yet unproven - is that the system will be able to deliver high-resolution graphics over standard TV, which normally can reproduce only VGA-quality graphics.

The drawbacks include the need to tie up a phone line to send anything to the 'Net and the monthly subscription to the WebTV Network. Another serious shortcoming is the lack of an alphanumeric keyboard - WebTV includes an onscreen "keyboard" navigated by buttons on the remote-control unit. But such things are hopelessly tedious; most users (if there are any) will pay extra for the "optional" infrared keyboard, or plug a standard PC keyboard into the set-top unit.

At least initally, the WebTV box also lacks a printer port, and any other means of making a permanent record of one's Internet gleanings.

Finally there's the other side of the coin: Instead of substituting a TV for a PC, Intel Corp. wants to replace your TV with a PC.

This is a rather old idea; "TV in a PC" expansion cards have been available since about 1991. But Intel's Intercast medium integrates Internet content with TV broadcasts, supposedly creating a "deeper viewing experience."

TV content producers, including CNN and MTV, add Web pages, software downloads and other Internet content to the unused portions of the signal they broadcast. Pentium-based Intel computers equipped with an Intercast card and viewer software can display the TV picture in a full screen or partial screen. The Internet content can be displayed in part of the screen and stored to one's hard disk. E-mail can be saved to disk and/or printed.

The Intercast paradigm is not for the impoverished masses, however. It's for PC owners - and power Pentium PC users at that. But it promises to save money, since Internet content will be delivered for free along with one's TV content. However, you will need a separate Internet connection to interact with the Web pages sent via Intercast, just as you do with WebTV.

ALL OF the emerging PC/TV paradigms have drastic shortcomings. So why are telecommunications moguls pushing them? Low-cost Internet access for the "information have-nots" (read, "poor, marginal consumers") is a non sequitur in the profit-driven world of mass marketing. The answer may lie in this candid quote from Hal Krisbergh, chairman of Worldgate:

"Children are now viewing less television. Why? Because they are going to the Internet. This is a way to put kids back to the TV platform." (See http://www. teledotcom. com/0796/headend/tdc0796headend-?tvage.html for his comments.)

Children are the target of TV marketing; if you doubt it, just count the commercials. Losing kids to a commercial-free Internet is a blow the TV industry cannot afford.

"Intel wants more Pentium PCs sold," said Hauppauge Digital's Aupperle. "Broadcasters want to differentiate themselves; they're fighting an increasingly fragmented market, even if we don't yet have five hundred TV channels. Hardware makers like us want to sell lots of Intercast cards. Software developers want to license new software to computer and television producers."

He might have added that TV advertisers want to make it easier for consumers to buy their products. Plainly, interactive TV is good for a great many businesses.

What's in Interactive TV for consumers besides temptation to spend more money? Don't expect the PC/TV to penetrate every household, closing the "information gap" between affluent and poor people. Instead, the overall cost of Internet access plus television will decline.

But critics say the downside is that the definition and cost of "basic" TV will rise as Internet-enabled PC/TVs replace conventional television sets. In other words, they say, a large percentage of the population will continue to be denied access to global information, while those who provide it will enjoy an expanded market.