Director Mike Bloxham and colleagues at the Center for Media Design (CMD) are pursuing four lines of enquiry: programming, advertising, interactivity in search and navigation, and the evolution of ‘t-commerce’ (the buying of services or products via iTV).

Research will be conducted out of CMD’s Insight & Research Media Lab, a fully kitted out testing environment for iTV technology and applications.

Called Viewing+, the initiative will be supported by an advisory board of industry players, with CBS and iTV industry body OEDN already signed up. Discussions with other potential members are ongoing.

Bloxham said: “As the TV screen evolves to deliver more interactivity as part of an overall experience, we need to understand just what those additional functionalities will come to mean for consumers, broadcasters, advertisers and other stakeholders in the TV business.”