There are three kinds of people: People who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who ask, ‘What happened?’

When it comes to convergence, the happenin’ few are the broadcasters who’ve embraced new ownership, new business models and new delivery channels. Take ctv. Hot on the heels of Time Warner/aol, the planet’s biggest merger of content, interactivity and distribution, ctv announced its acquisition by bce and, soon thereafter, its consolidation with The Globe and Mail. The resulting new company’s business model centres on content, connectivity and commerce. With the launch of ctvnews.com, the network is already delivering interactive content on-air and online to every conceivable broadcast device: television, the web, cell phones and personal digital assistants.

In so doing, ctv has positioned itself for the ‘three rs’ of convergence: reducing expenses, reaching audiences and revenue building. Whereas abcnews.com and cnn.com rely on hundreds of staff members to deliver news, ctvnews.com is delivering enhanced video around- the-clock with a core team of 14. Furthermore, abcnews.com and cnn.com are delivering to the Web only, while ctvnews.com is delivering to multiple output devices, retaining and increasing its audience today – automatically.

This brandwidth means more than just ratings. It means additional shelf space for advertisers and a means to tap North America’s lucrative interactive tv e-commerce and advertising marketplace, pegged by Forrester and Canadian sources to be $48 billion by 2005.

Canada’s leadership is not surprising when we consider two key factors: Canada has significant broadband penetration and world-renowned news organizations. The medium and the message converge.

Creating an interactive experience means taking the very best of tv and combining it with the finest of the web. tv’s strength is in high-quality production, editorial integrity and brand ‘personality,’ with the trusted anchors, hosts and on-air talent that keep audiences coming back. By contrast, the web is interactive, searchable and serves individuals as opposed to demographic groups. Uniting these two worlds is essential to the survival of each. Audiences will accept no less.

Convergence is about the interactive experience. It is box independent, technology independent and pipeline independent. What the audience wants is content that they can personalize, whether live or on-demand. They want to get in deep with this content, immersing themselves in a particular story and living with the news for hours, days or even years. We saw this with O.J. Simpson, with Clinton and Lewinsky and, more recently in Canada, with the passing of Pierre Trudeau. Television tried to offer news for this new audience of news junkies, but was constrained by the linear, time-based nature of traditional broadcasting.

With interactive broadcasting, however, networks and channels can meet their audiences on new ground, offering rich content that connects related themes and that integrates the viewers’ perspectives into evolving stories. Breaking news links to archives to provide historical context to our stories.

For audiences, convergence has at last moved from the boardroom to the living room. Business stories about mergers have alluded to the potential for anyone to interact with broadcast content, on any device, at any time. The year 2000 will be remembered as the year that marked the end of this convergence promise and delivered the reality.

Catherine Warren is Chief Operating Officer of Blue Zone, a Nasdaq company that provides interactive solutions to broadcasters. Blue Zone’s NewsBZ(tm) software powers ctvnews.com, the world’s first fully interactive news service. Warren has worked in New Media since 1984, where she broke the story of convergence on location at mit. She has served as publisher or editor of more than 25 books and magazines on the subjects of new media, science and technology, as well as produced numerous award-winning websites and interactive broadcast initiatives. *