Interactive TV, Netflix and Community Spirit

Interactive TV, Netflix and Community Spirit

Interactive TV

There have been so many false starts to interactive television, it has become to seem like an experiment which will never yield results. The craze of interactive comic books and new video game technologies saw some “vote-for-what-you-want-to-see-next” programmes broadcast in 1980s America, but with little appreciation or durability. Some critics place talent shows such as Pop Idol and The X Factor in the interactive TV format, but adaptable narratives have never entered the mainstream.

So why all the talk?

Interactive TV has reentered the film and TV discussion in recent years, with online video platforms providing the perfect medium for audience reciprocation. The struggling Facebook Watch has announced that interactivity will be unrolled as a major feature of much of their upcoming content, with polls and questionnaires posed to live audiences.

Fully interactive TV narratives, however, are harder to implement. Netflix learned this last year with the half-hearted roll-out of its children’s show Puss in Book. Now, however, Netflix is poised to seriously reinvigorate the interactive TV format. They are introducing a “create-your-own-adventure” episode to its lucrative acquisition Black Mirror.

Here’s the thing

Black Mirror is appropriate for a foray into interactive TV because it tends to explore the alienating impacts of modern technology. Choose-your-own-story interactive TV fundamentally misunderstands the evolutionary and cultural function of storytelling.

Storytelling is a social phenomenon. It allows communities, small or large, to have a feeling of shared experience. Television programmes have become national sensations because people talked about them in dining rooms, playgrounds and offices. Stories are not supposed to be experienced in isolation.

Interactive TV 2.0

LiveTree’s unprecedented approach to film and TV will make all video content community-based and essentially interactive.

When LiveTree users watch films and television programmes on Blossom TV, they can decide what comes next – sequels, new series or brand new projects. Users can back new content with Seed tokens and then hold a stake in the product, earning profits when it hits the screen.

LiveTree users will be deciding what content gets made. And creators will have the option to pitch ideas to backers and develop the narrative along with their audiences. LiveTree is returning power back to audiences and control back to creators. LiveTree allows creators to be assured of a fanbase, and allows market demand to manifest directly in production.

Discover the true value of storytelling.