Backchannelmedia recently announced their TV-to-Internet technology was being trialed by LIN TV Corp. in New England, and now The Advertising Council will adopt the technology for use with their public service campaigns. The Ad Council’s use will coincide with the New England trials with LIN TV and will involve campaigns for Obesity Prevention, Inspiring Invention, Adoption, and Autism Awareness.

Backchannelmedia’s system allows viewers to respond to ‘bugs’ on the screen during viewing. The remote click sends a signal through the cable system to the back end to ‘bookmark’ content online for the user to review later. So if you see a PSA for adoption and you’re interested in more information you can click your remote, then later when you go online you’re reminded and given the chance to review more information.

I think this is a neat idea – one I’ve suggested TiVo do in the past. TiVo’s interactive ads and on-box content are great, but the reality is some interactions are better via the computer interface. I wouldn’t want to read in depth information about autism on my TV, but I’m curious enough that I might on my PC. TiVo has XMPP in place to handle real time messaging. They could send clicks to a user page on TiVo.com, or, better, to widgets on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, or right to TiVo Desktop – where they could pop open the users browser when desired.

Anyway, in general I like the idea of linking the TV and the computer, each does what it does very well and leveraging the capabilities of the other platform makes a lot of sense.

Press release:

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