SIGNALS: rethinking how audiences interact with live TV

If the last decade of media innovation has taught us anything, it’s that audiences are renegotiating their relationship with TV. We’ve all become multitaskers, checking apps, chats, streams, and scrolls while something plays in the background and often talking about the show that’s on.

The latest project in BBC Research & Development's FWD team is looking at how to bring that interaction happening everywhere else, back to the TV screen - and to the programme itself.

Interactive media isn't new - you could say R&D's work on Ceefax was the first interactive 'signal' on the TV, continuing with the BBC's red button services on digital TV. And over the last decade our work on flexible media and IP distribution technologies such as dynamic insertion and synchronisation have led to industry standards like HBBTV.

Why now?

The role of interactivity in everyday viewing is transforming dramatically. Habits have changed, audiences are ready, and the technologies are available. This makes it the moment for our work on SIGNALS to connect with audiences.

As intelligent systems become a part of everyday life, people increasingly expect technology to anticipate their needs. Audiences are looking for meaning, connection, and agency, but don't necessarily want more devices, more complexity, or more cognitive overhead. And with advanced processing power and new capabilities built in to new TV models, television can meet that expectation.

SIGNALS builds on all of this, adding interactive moments directly into live TV. It adds depth and detail without interruption, letting you take part on the TV you're already watching by reacting, choosing, or exploring extra detail as the programme unfolds. It's designed to be:

• Inviting, not distracting or demanding,
• Simple on the surface, powerful underneath,
• Created around live TV, when everyone's watching together.

In other words: interaction you actually want to take part in. We don't want to overwhelm viewers with possibilities, we want to guide them back to the heart of the viewing experience (the TV screen) and become part of the story in action.

How it works

SIGNALS runs as an internet‑delivered layer alongside broadcast TV. Because it is agnostic of the TV's media player, it's easier to adapt, integrate and scale. SIGNALS blends live data with editorial content, delivering rich infographics, fun interactions, and new ways to connect with others on the big screen.

We started with a simple rule: it must be easy to use from the moment you first see it, so interactions currently use the TV remote control. But as new TVs are increasingly packed with greater processing power and complex sensors, opportunities for advanced and intelligent interactions open up. Remote‑driven input is only the first milestone; gesture, voice, and for some, agentic commerce experiences will follow.

Our focus has been single and multi-player content to play alongside unscripted programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and Race Across the World. The idea is to play, discover new content or information, and to connect with others, getting a feel for how the nation is reacting as you play along. Crucially, this is a two‑way interaction: audiences don’t just take part, they see the collective response unfold in real time, turning individual moments into a shared, visible experience on the TV itself.

Imagine scoring a routine on Strictly at the exact moment the judges lift their paddles to see how you compare. Or choosing which route contestants should take in Race Across the World before they commit, discovering cultural insights along the way and building up a living map of their journey that could be an inspiration for your own future holiday!

Our thinking also extends into current affairs and sport. Audiences could respond live to discussion points on Question Time, seeing how their views align (or clash) with others watching and creating a live snapshot of the national mood. Live sport already thrives on data, and SIGNALS allows us to experiment with layering that data into the viewing experience in meaningful, personalised ways. By combining real‑time statistics with storytelling that adapts to each viewer, we’re exploring how live sport can be even more immersive.

We’ve built all of these experiences on a platform that puts full control in the hands of editorial teams, allowing them to create, edit and launch SIGNALS on the fly. They're not just reacting to audience participation, but actively shaping it with new interactions in the moment.

SIGNALS is in early development, and while the examples we highlighted above are just prototypes and ideas, we'll be sharing more on our work soon. For now, consider SIGNALS a signpost: a glimpse of how television might reclaim attention not by competing with everything else in the room, but by bringing the interactions back to the TV screen itself.