OpenTV's Matthew Huntington gave us an update on the company's progress at IBC. Matthew and I both go back to the early days of interactive TV, so there was some fond reminiscing of those heady times when it looked, if only for a fleeting moment, like the TV set might become a real rival to the PC in online services. Yes, people really did used to think we would be buying our weekly shopping, checking our bank accounts and sending email on the family TV set. And for a short time a few brave souls probably tried it a few times, using Sky's Open.... service. I vaguely recall managing to send a couple of emails using the remote control, which is scarcely believable in today's broadband world, never mind using dial-up. OpenTV benefited hugely from being the early leader in interactive TV, and in spite of more interactive TV misses than hits, has maintained its lead ever since. Now the company is looking to the next generation of interactive TV interfaces that will be possible on more powerful set-top boxes from 2009 onwards. Here is a (not very good) photo of what we might be seeing on our TV screens in a few years' time. 070920070062.jpg OpenTV is taking a refreshing user-centric approach to next-gen design challenges and evidently taking an innovative approach to how users will want to navigate a world of almost unlimited content from multiple sources: the wheel text input application seemed particularly useful. The company recognises that search and recommendation will be major challenges in the content environment and will need strong partners in this field, but it appears to be moving in the right direction. Patents have been filed in areas such as multi-faceted navigation. Home shopping, fortunately, did not feature prominently in the demonstration.