Applause Button

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Web-based radio is not really a broadcast, sent out to the world at large with anyone able to pick it up. Each receiver connects to the "broadcaster". The connection is potentially two-way.

Advertisers could use "narrow-casting". Imagine you and your neighbor are -- separately -- watching the same program on an IP-based TV. In the ad-break,  you see an ad for diapers while she sees one for arthritis drugs. Even in one home, your teen's TV could receive different ads than you do.

A broadcaster could also know how many people are watching, without relying on surveys. They'll even know if you switch channels when the show gets a bit boring. One can imagine a world of even more fine-tuned, audience-driven programming (not necessarily a great thing). ["That joke did not work, but the other one was better than expected!"]

Take this one step further. Say you're watching live comedy at a club. You applaud. On web-radio, you could  press a little "applause button". Your TV remote might have an applause button too. Or, when a commentator says something stupid, you press the "boo" button.

Take this to more range-of-the moment ways to encourage the audience-mob: a studio could hook the feedback to sound effects and we can have audience participation like you've never seen before.

(From an earlier post of Mar 2006)

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