‘I can design a funhouse that’s so much fun that I can charge people to visit it on-line and I’ll make my living by sitting there and elaborating on it each day.’ – Will Wright, creator SimCity

When you understand that this is the guiding philosophy at Citytv, you will understand why Michael McHale is so excited about the present and future developments taking place at CityInteractive, CHUM/City’s high-tech division. It’s got a three-tiered, five-year plan that begins with CityOnline, continues to Cityrom, and culminates at CityPlex. Hello CyberCitytv.

CityInteractive is headed up by McHale, a thirtysomething man whose varied entertainment background and interest in computers – not the technology but what you can do with it – keep the wheels of possibility turning. And the possibilities seem endless, seeing as they already have 20,000 hours of pop culture programming to develop as multimedia software.

So, what are they up to?

The long-range plan is to have CityPlex, interactive television, up and going in five years. With this declaration, comes McHale’s theory of communications:

‘Every 50 years in the modern economy, there’s been a communications revolution. One hundred and fifty years ago the telegraph came around and allowed big business to grow for the first time.

‘Fifty years later, along came the telephone to revolutionize business and personal communication. No one even realized what it was worth, American Telegraph turned down the patent!

‘Then 50 years ago television arrived and we still haven’t figured it out. People question the power of tv. Good or bad, most people arrange the furniture in their homes around it. And today, we have the digital revolution.’

In five years, once the technology (broadband capabilities delivered to each home) is in place, McHale can’t envision limits. ‘My definition of interaction,’ he says, ‘is not the ability to select programs from a menu. That’s just sophisticated channel-hopping. True interaction is where you can actually go in and manipulate your environment.’

What will you be able to do? Well, walk down Queen Street West into the CHUM/City building (or choose one of the other tenant buildings on the street) jump into a poster, go on a tour, create your own documentariesÉwhatever! CityPlex is also planning to create AlternativeMovies, Hyper Video-on-Demand, specials culled from City, MuchMusic and Bravo! They want to deliver their unique brands in creative ways.

Closer to realization is Cityrom. McHale’s hopes are for Cityrom to become a unique alternative label pumping out new and creative pop culture product. And while Media Television, The Originals, The New Music and FashionTelevision are among the City and MuchMusic titles slated for repackaging (and repurposing), Cityrom is interested in talking to any developer out there who has a unique idea in the pop culture arena.

‘But,’ warns McHale, ‘go out and research the field. Don’t come in and pitch an idea for cd-rom just because it’s the new technology. If you’re not a good storyteller, new technology won’t help you.’

While the networks have hours of programming and various creative departments on-hand, McHale insists that opportunity still lies in the fact that there is always the need for a unique, high-quality product.

Someone like Ron Mann, for example, has his feet firmly in the two camps: he’s proven himself as an accomplished filmmaker, and he’s one of Canada’s hottest cd-rom producers. Two of his early films, Poetry in Motion and Comicbook Confidential, are two of the best-selling cd-roms in the country. His ideas can now be realized in traditional or cutting-edge technology. In essence, it doesn’t matter how the information gets to the audience, now there are simply more entrance gateways and delivery systems.

The marketing potential here is enormous. McHale sees the face of cd-rom distribution changing drastically. Prices will come down and cds will be available everywhere, from computer stores to book stores to giant retail outlets.

At present, Cityrom is negotiating with a number of companies. It expects to have two or three titles available by the end of this year.

In the on-line world, City is moving on two fronts: it’s creating product, and it’s creating its own on-line service. Presently, City is working with Worldlinks Communications, a commercial on-line service (like America Online, Delphi or CompuServe). The advantage of using commercial on-line services is that they provide all of the administration and maintenance.

While this is underway, ‘we’re creating proprietary technology that will allow us to create a unique on-line service of our own,’ says McHale. This is presently in the planning phase, but they will be moving into production quite soon. ‘We’re aiming for a July (’95) Beta delivery and a Sept. 1 (’95) service to consumers.’

By way of product, one of the first on-line projects will be CityPulse, which will consist primarily of text and simple graphics.

More interesting for the North American market will be the on-line launch of Media Television and NewMusic. Both shows already have loyal followings in many American university towns. Some cities, like Boston and New York, even have some bbs support in place for MediaTelevision. For the computer set who dig pop culture, City’s software will be like manna from heaven.

On a larger front, CityInteractive is creating its new technology with a keen eye on the global market. CityOnline will be a unique service delivered to people all over the world. At City, they envision a CHUM/City virtual environment including: viewer feedback and immediate response, City/MuchMusic/Bravo! forums, access to the CityStore, tie-ins to Intimate and Interactive, a CityCafe to hang out in, an interactive Speakers Corner, and on-line chat sessions with artists who drop by the Much environment. The plan is to break down whatever barriers still exist between City and the viewer.

Another area CityInteractive is exploring is diGIGanda. That’s digital propaganda or advertising to lay people. McHale believes that if you make the diGIGanda fun as well as visually and emotionally appealing, on-line consumers will actually request it. They’ll download it onto disks and swap with friends. ‘We want our diGIGanda to become the baseball trading cards of the 21st century,’ says McHale.

And while the money for this diGIGanda will come from companies’ traditional advertising budgets, McHale suggests this will be happening soon anyway. There are a handful of new specialty networks hitting the airwaves in January that’ll change the way everyone spends their ad dollars.

TVO, CTV go on-line

What are other networks up to?

Right now, tvontario and the CTV Television Network are dealing with consumer on-line services. They’re working with technology as it stands today and using it as a marketing tool or as an avenue for viewer response.

TVO Online sees its niche in education and culture. Its bbs service features tvo programs and support materials, worldwide Internet e-mail, discussion forums, and a growing collection of shareware and freeware. And much of its service is available in both English and French.

David McLachlan, a designer at TVO Online, says that in addition to developing content for its service, tvo is also creating a virtual community. While TVO Online forums allow users to discuss topics of common interest – programming, education, parenting – subscribers are carrying on further discussions in separate chat sessions that they initiate.

McLachlan says TVO Online subscriber numbers are growing and vocal. The service is helping to break down the barrier between program and viewer because viewers are logging in, making comments, asking questions and posing alternatives.

ctv has signed an agreement with genie, General Electric’s consumer on-line service which touts a dedicated commitment to Canadian content. According to Drew Williams, director of marketing at ctv, the aim of ctv’s Roundtable (the special-interest area on genie) is to ‘provide a high-profile response mechanism to our viewers by bringing in a sense of immediacy and a certain amount of access.’

For ease of use, ctv’s Roundtable – which is aptly called Inside tv – is broken down into various subgroups: Buzz, an area where members can post questions or comments about programming, celebrities, politicians, etc.; Pipeline!, a direct line dedicated to getting answers from people in high places; Live & Interactive, a discussion forum which often features high-profile Canadians; and TV-Files, an electronic pressroom with recent press releases and photo files.

ctv has learned a few good lessons in its early forays into this interactive environment. It has found that it’s a challenge to get people to actually interact. A lot of members are moving around the system and looking at what’s there, but they’re not leaving a trace. This is called lurking.

ctv has discovered that to change this, content has to be entertaining; the fun stuff gets response. While developing creative solutions to this problem, the network is forging ahead, using its on-line service as a marketing tool, running contests and developing a Canadian viewer response system which gives viewers a ‘900’ number to call to request more information about advertiser products or services.

While all three broadcasters are jumping on the I-way bandwagon to the future, CityInteractive has already created the lingo for when the rest of us arrive. ‘We’re selling diGIGanda to Screenagers…’ says McHale.

(If you have a computer and modem and would like to sign on to TVO Online, call: (416) 484-2610. For more information or to join Inside ctv, call (416) 595-4330.)

(pamela davis is a Toronto-based freelance writer.)