Coactive TV

Coactive TV refers to the multitasking use of both television and other interactive media, such as the Internet (the Web, etc.) in a media multitasking behavior. The simultaneous or alternating use of TV and the Internet, especially where the using of both media is coordinated or synchronized, and especially where the TV and the Internet browser (or other viewer of a second media type) are automatically coordinated with one another – typically (but not necessarily) on multiple devices or screens.

Coactive TV is related to Interactive TV (ITV). It is especially relevant to "two-screen" ITV offerings such as the Enhanced TV (ETV) offerings of networks such as ABC, and others. Similar kinds of coactive TV have emerged based on mobile phones, which also provide a second screen that can be coactive with the TV screen.

Coactive TV promises to become more general, flexible, and ubiquitous, in that it can be based on open Web servers that need not be tied to any particular program, network, or programmer, and that can work across programs and channels, with recorded, time-shifted programs, and across device types. The coordination can be done externally to either of the TV or the Web content (or whatever other media are to be linked in coactivity).

Coactive TV is a form of Coactive Media

Most fundamentally, coactivity is not about devices or individual media content items, or about any particular media platforms, but about how human attention moves among media content items, using available devices and platforms -- and about what automated support is provided to facilitate such multitasking.