TV's future will be interactive, says executive

Television is re-tooling quickly for the future, according to Maggie Wildrotter, a leading television and wireless industry executive with a San Francisco Bay Area communications company.The UC Davis Graduate School of Management's Distinguished Speaker for the winter quarter says that televisions will soon be more interactive without costly upgrades or additional hardware."The greatest innovation of all is the notion of enhancing a broadcast with personalized additions that allow viewers to vote in polls, order products or play along with the game shows," says Wildrotter, director of Wink Communications. "We're developing electronics that provide push-button access for on-screen information such as sports scores and local weather forecasts as part of regular television shows."A viewer would be able to punch up information to supplement programming they're watching. For example, they could get statistics about players in a baseball game or obtain a legal definition during a Court TV broadcast.Wildrotter, will speak at 1 p.m. on campus in the Memorial Union's East Conference Room on Wednesday, Feb. 12.