October 29, 2003 - By Paul Bond, The Hollywood Reporter

A slow and steady approach to interactive and enhanced television will pay off in the long run, several new-media executives agreed Tuesday at a discussion hosted by the Digital Coast Roundtable.

Stephen Andrade, manager of NBC.com and Bravotv.com, said such an approach will keep NBC from "burning out too quickly."

"We're optimistic about technology, but humble," Andrade said.

Likewise, reiterating his point after the event, David Baron, vp programming and production for Paramount Digital Entertainment, said that "Paramount has been conservative when it comes to adopting new technologies, and that has served us well."

Though he later acknowledged that, "for me, it can be frustrating."

"But others lost millions during the Internet bubble. Paramount didn't."

When former Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chairman Bryce Zabel asked panelists for success stories, one said hers was her ability to ignore the hype.

"In 1992 there was a lot of hoopla about iTV," said Michele DiLorenzo, head of new ventures at Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, after the panel discussion. "It was all false assumptions. Saying 'no' to things, even though the newspapers were filled with people doing exciting stuff, was a success."

One audience member called the discussion a healthy dose of "exciting realism."

"Everyone agreed technology is capable of marvelous things, but that doesn't mean the market is ready to embrace it," Zabel said later. "These guys are capable of adding all sorts of bells and whistles to TV, but how does that add to the bottom line?"

Baron, though, stressed later that a generation of viewers are growing up expecting some sort of interactivity with their television, "but most people creating TV are not of that generation."

As discussions like this one, called "The Future of Television," often do, panelists focused much of their attention on TiVo and the other digital video recorders.

"There are a lot of things that are scary about DVRs," NBC's Andrade said afterward. "But it's a great way to get content to viewers. It's just too early. Most people don't feel the need to have a DVR. It's not time yet."

Digital video recorders, as often noted, are encouraging the practice of product placement in TV shows, just one of many ways the technology will affect those who make the shows, as well as the more obvious ways it affects those whose job it is to sell advertising around them. That's why panelist Rick Mandler, vp and general manager of the Walt Disney Internet Group and ABC's Enhanced TV said the most important point made "was the dawning realization by the creative community that DVR's present challenges to their business too."

The panelists also agreed to disagree on the importance of the television network as a brand. Nickelodeon, MTV and the Sci-Fi Channel are important brand names because of their niche programming, DiLorenzo said, whereas NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and others are not.

Not surprisingly, Andrade voiced his alternative view after the discussion. "Branding is important in the digital future," he said. "The NBC brand will continue to mean something to people because NBC always puts together great programming."

The Digital Coast Roundtable, chaired by editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter Robert J. Dowling, is a nonprofit group that promotes economic opportunity for technology companies -- particularly in the media and entertainment spaces -- in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Copyright 2003 The Hollywood Reporter