Integrated Multimedia Publishing: Combining TV and Newspaper Content on Personal Channels

Fast networks enable the delivery of TV and newspaper content over an Internet connection. This enables new types of integrated publications that include features from both media. The IMU system, described in this paper, automatically integrates newspaper and TV content into a continuously updated World Wide Web-multimedia publication. An active proxy server pursues the integration and delivers the publication through an ATM fibre link to fast networks, such as the bi-directional cable TV network and the ADSL telephone network, providing near-TV quality. The users read the IMU publication from the Internet on their PCs with normal World Wide Web-browsers. You can also watch the publication on your Internet TV set. The proxy server captures metadata from the Web sites and from the editorial systems of the IMU content providers. In addition, the system keeps track of the choices of the user and proposes what news the user and his= her social group would most probably be interested in. The user interface is based on personalisable channels, which gather news material according to the priorities defined by the editors and the users. For ease of use the proxy server automatically paginates the articles into a sequence of browsable pages. News articles and TV news are linked to each other through automatic association. In a field trial lasting eight months, 62 people used the service through the bi-directional cable TV network in their homes. The average IMU session was brief, focusing on a few and fresh articles, and took place in the evening at prime time or in the morning. Both TV and newspaper content interested the users. Personalisation was not too attractive — only some of the users created their own channels. In the user interviews, the integration of content was viewed as the key feature.  1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.