Digital TV is coming of age and local government is starting to take note

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how, why and what citizen‐focused services local authorities might consider and deliver on digital interactive television (DiTV). In trying to make interaction with local government more joined up and easier for the citizen, digital television has been employed by around 80 local authorities in the UK to determine what is best offered via this emerging channel, how efficiencies in service delivery can be achieved and to encourage participation and democracy. Design/methodology/approach – The project was run by offering a stable, centrally‐hosted, centrally‐funded, multi‐platform technology to local government to investigate and manage their services. Alongside just “getting involved” a large research project involving 300 homes in West London was run with accompanying qualitative and quantitative research. Findings – The evidence indicates that the public is interested in using simple transactional and informational services at this point in time, as long as they are given the “directions” to find services. There are high expectations regarding the use of a wide range of services as the medium beds in and becomes more widely available. A large percentage of citizens expect to use DiTV to contact and communicate with the local government organisations just as they use the telephone today. Research limitations/implications – The research derives from pre‐structured polls conducted through closed questioning and responses from the public were therefore inevitably limited by the reference frame provided by researchers. Originality/value – This paper provides a detailed view of how citizens use DiTV and expectations of use for the future. Analysis of usage data is supplemented by a DigiTV specified research project.