25 Interactive TV Narratives: Opportunities, Progress, and Challenges MARIAN F. URSU ANDRA LEURDIJK Goldsmiths, University of London, UK TNO, Netherlands MAUREEN THOMAS VILMOS ZSOMBORI University of Cambridge, UK Goldsmiths, University of London, UK IAN KEGEL and DOUG WILLIAMS JULIA SUSSNER BT, UK University of Cambridge, UK MIKA TUOMOLA ULF MYRESTAM University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland SVT, Sweden INGER LINDSTEDT and University of Malm ¨ o, Sweden NINA HALL TERENCE WRIGHT BBC, UK University of Ulster, UK This article is motivated by the question whether television should do more than simply offer interactive services alongside (and separately from) traditional linear programs, in the context of its dominance being seriously challenged and threatened by interactive forms of screen media entertainment. It suggests: yes. Interactive narrativity, that is, the ability to interact with (and influence) stories whilst they are being told, represents one clear development path for interactive television. The capabilities of computing technology are ripe for exploring this new form of storytelling, from creation to commercial distribution. The article starts by looking at the relationship between narrativity and interactivity in the current context of screen media, and identifies clear signs of interest from certain European public broadcasters in interactive TV narratives. It then presents in detail four recent experimental interactive TV productions in the genres of drama, news, and documentary, developed in collaboration with public broadcasters, which illustrate the potential and richness of this new form of storytelling, but also highlight new technological capabilities necessary for such productions. A number of essential technological requirements are then discussed in more detail in the final part. The article suggests that the ShapeShifting Media Technology, employed in the implementation of the four productions, has made significant advances both at the technological and the creative ends in supporting the development of interactive TV narrativity, but, however, that further developments are required before being able to answer questions such as “Would end users want such a form of screen media entertainment?” and “Would it be effective for both end users and producers?” This research was supported by the integrated projects NM2: New Media, New Millenium (FP6 IST-004124) and TA2: Together Anytime, Together Anywhere (FP7 214793), partly funded by the European Union’s research Framework Programmes 6 and 7. Authors’ addresses: M. F. Ursu, V. Zsombori, Narrative and Interactive Media Group, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London, SE14 6NW, UK; M. Thomas, J. Sussner, Digital Studio, Department of Architecture, University of Cam- bridge, 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge CB2 1PX, UK; I. Kegel, D. Williams, Future Content Group, BT, Adastral Park, Ipswich, IPS 3RE, UK; M. Tuomola, Crucible Studio, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Hameentie 135 C, FIN-00560, Helsinki, Finland; I. Lindstedt, School of Arts and Communication, University of Malmo, 20506 Malmo, Sweden; T. Wright, School of Art and Design, University of Ulster, Belfast, BT15 1ED, UK; A. Leurdijk, TNO, P.O. Box 5050, 2600 GB Delft, The Netherlands; U. Myrestam, SVT, Sweden; N. Hall, BBC, UK. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a display along with the full citation. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, to redistribute to lists, or to use any component of this work in other works requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Permissions may be requested from Publications Dept., ACM, Inc., 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121-0701 USA, fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or permissions@acm.org. c  2008 ACM 1551-6857/2008/10-ART25 $5.00 DOI 10.1145/1412196.1412198 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1412196.1412198 ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications, Vol. 4, No. 4, Article 25, Publication date: October 2008.