Utility companies will soon be able to offer household billing and
answer related enquires via interactive digital TV (iDTV), after
BSkyB launched a billing service on its iDTV platform.
A number of utility companies, including telephone, power and
retail finance organisations, are in discussions with the
broadcaster to launch iDTV billing services, following a successful
six-month trial of the technology which involved 200,000 Sky
Digital customers.
Ian Valentine, technical alliances director for Sky Interactive,
said the new service, which is based on technology from software
provider Macro 4, represents an opportunity to improve customer
service. "With analogue switch-off due in 2010, iDTV is an ideal
mechanism to deliver efficient, high-quality customer service to UK
consumers," he said. "[The service] is an ideal way for any
organisation to offer the benefits of electronic billing to their
customers."
Davnet Cassidy, an analyst at GartnerG2, said she was sceptical
about how successful iDTV billing will be, as digital TV users have
not shown any inclination to use services other than games and
information through their televisions thus far.
"The services will be simple to use but they do not add any value -
people will still want their bills on paper," she said. "Companies
want to get involved because they want to be seen to be
multi-channel but the benefits are marginal."
Macro 4's Columbus software takes existing computer-generated bills
and automatically converts them into a format - in this case Sky's
enhanced Wireless Markup Language microbrowser - that can be viewed
on iDTV or the Internet.
Cassidy dismissed suggestions that iDTV could eliminate paper
bills as "pie in the sky".