【小站独家】雅思阅读全真模考题:短信-电视的进化版

displayed before the evening news broadcast; viewers are invited to text in their answers at a cost of euro 1, for a chance to win a curo300 prize. On a typical day, 6,000 people take part. TV-related text messaging now accounts for an appreciable share of mobile operators' data revenues. In July, a British operator, mmO2, reported better-than-expected financial results, thanks to the flood of messages caused by “Big Brother”. Operators typically lake 40-50% of the revenue from each message, with the rest divided between the broadcaster, the programme maker and the firm providing the message-processing system. Text-message revenues are already a vital element of the business model for many shows. Inevitably, there is grumbling（怨言）that the operators take too much of the pie.  Endemol, the Netherlands-based production company behind “Big Brother”, and many other reality TV shows has started building its own database of mobile-phone users. The next step will be to establish direct billing relationships with them, and bypass the operators (运营商).

D

Why has the union of television and text message suddenly proved so successful? One important factor is the availability of special four-, five- or six-digit numbers, called “shortcodes” (简码). Each operator controls its own shortcodes, and only relatively recently have operators realised that it makes sense to co-operate and offer shortcodes that work across all networks. The availability of such common shortcodes was a breakthrough, says Lars Becker of Flytxt, a mobile-marketing firm, since shortcodes are far easier to remember when flashed up on the screen.

E

The operators' decision to co-operate in order to expand the market is part of a broader trend, observes Katrina Bond of Analysys, a consultancy. Faced with a choice between protecting their margins and allowing a new medium to emerge, operators have always chosen the first. WAP (无线应用协议），a technology for reading cut-down web pages on mobile phones, failed because operators were reluctant to share revenue with content providers. Having learnt their lesson, operators are changing their time. In France, one operator. Orange, has even gone so far as to publish a rate card for text-message revenue-sharing, a degree of transparency (透明度）that would once have been unthinkable.

F

At a recent conference organised by Van Dusseldorp & Partners, Han Weegink of CMG, a firm that provides text-message infrastructure, noted that all this is subtly changing the nature of television. Rather than presenting content to viewers, an increasing number of programmes involve content that reacts to the viewer's input. That was always the promise of interactive TV, of course. Interactive TV was supposed to revolve around fancy set-top boxes that plug directly into the television. But that approach has a number of drawbacks, says Mr Daum. It is expensive to develop and test software for multiple and incompatible types of set-top box, and the market penetration, at 40% or less, is lower than that for mobile phones, which are now owned by around 85% of Europeans. Also, mobile-phone applications can be quickly developed and set up. “You can get to market faster, and with fewer grasping (贪婪的) intermediaries,” says Mr Daum. Providers of set-top box technology are adding text-messaging capabilities to their products.

G

The success of TV-related texting is a reminder of how easily an elaborate technology can be unexpectedly overtaken by a simpler, lower-tech approach. It does not mean that the traditional approach to interactive TV is doomed: indeed, it demonstrates that there is strong demand for interactive services. People, it seems, really do want to do more than just stare at the screen. If nothing else, couch potatoes like to exercise their thumbs.