Hide your cards, soon everything on TV will be for sale

Ecommerce may need to move over once most homes have Tcommerce

The television is the cornerstone of most American living rooms. It brings people together to have a shared experience and also allows individuals the ability to have a slice of escapism. But as more content is consumed on mobile devices and Internet-connected technology, television creators are looking to make the TV more than just a method of viewing a movie or show – they want it to be interactive and offer more than a computer or tablet could.

In this vein, many companies are working on introducing more actions that can happen with the click of a button.

We already can choose when we want to watch the content we enjoy thanks to video on demand and DVR options.

Next on the agenda was creating apps to assist in the second screen interaction. Developers created apps for popular cable shows such as Sons of Anarchy, Covert Affairs and special events such as the Super Bowl.

Now, it looks like the next wave of TV innovation is the ability to buy retail items and donate to charities right from your remote.

In coming months, TV viewers will be able to click a single button to buy a product from the Home Shopping Network, PBS or other stations that are advertising.

At the TV of Tomorrow conference this week, Mark Wenger, director of connected devices and interactive TV at PayPal explained just how much Tcommerce could change the TV viewing experience and how PayPal will be a part of it.

“We are really focused on making it easy as possible for the merchants to export their back-ends from other fulfillment roles over to Tcommerce,” Wenger said. “The early adopters will be shopping channels and charities, but then commercials, reality shows and others will come on board.”

There are a lot of possibilities for advertisers and program developers to recapture the lost revenue now that so many people fast-forward through commercials and avoid other advertisements.

Tony Werner CTO of Comcast and the future of connected TV /devices explained that, while PayPal wouldn’t like to admit it, the easiest way to go from zero to 60 in the Tcommerce realm is to have it take the same path as Pay Per View and allow people to charge their cable bill.

“We already have Delivery Agent is in 16 million households. focus today is to expand footprint/scale. entry might be on mobile side,” Werner said about the commerce partnership that is already being used by CBS, NBC and Fox. “The best way to handle this is to have the experience be as simple as possible – a click, or swipe while they are still watching their show.”

Wenger rebutted the idea of charging the cable bill for commerce items can lead to sticker shock – I can only imagine what would happen if you got a $500 cable bill because a few purses and a late-night donation all fell in the same calendar month.

I might have to keep my wallet far away from my remote when this function comes into play but it would definitely reduce the pain that advertisers have felt from cord cutting and DVR casualties.