Are communication services the killer applications for Interactive TV? or “I left my wife because I am in love with the TV set”*

Using the Portuguese interactive television service from TV Cabo as a working basis, this paper discusses the potential of communication services such as chat, forums and multi-user games to act as iTV community builders and to become real iTV killer applications. In the three cases presented in this paper – multi-player iTV games, interactive football matches and iTV talk-show “Noites Interactivas” the major characteristics outlined for virtual communities can be found, indicating that iTV applications can act as virtual communities builders. Also the success of these applications in the TV Cabo service, as well as other successful cases observed in industry leaders such as the BBC, indicate that they have the potential of becoming true killer applications for interactive television.