The first-ever Emmy acknowledging Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television Programming was presented August 21 to HBO for the Band of Brothers miniseries, a World War II combat drama. The miniseries' interactive components were designed to help viewers follow a single company of US paratroopers from boot camp to D-day and through some of the war's toughest battles. Tonight's "Tech Live" reports.

"Here's a show about a period of time most people don't know very much about," said Bryce Zabel, chairman of Academy of the Television Arts and Sciences. "You were able to watch the production and still follow the story, and the overlay of it. The interactive element did not take you out of that story, but rather complemented it."

Sandy Spadavecchia, a senior producer at HBO who accepted the award, created two applications for the interactive format. First is the passive application, where the information is pushed to the viewer

"For instance there's a scene, where Easy Company is liberating Holland and a woman unfurls an orange flag. It's obvious that she's friendly and she's not a threat, and what's the significance of orange?" asked Spadavecchia. The answer, which popped up on the screen during the scene: Orange was the color associated with the Dutch royal family, which was in exile in England during the German occupation.

Getting the viewer involved

The other application is an active state, allowing the viewer to access additional content, such as character biographies and episode guides, through menus.

"This is something that we really believe in. Unfortunately the technology and just the numbers of viewers who can access this kind of content isn't here yet," said Spadavecchia. "But it's something that we believe will eventually happen and we're doing things to prepare and understand how we can use this technology as we advance."

Only viewers who have AOLTV set-top boxes were able to use the interactive elements of the miniseries.

Spadavecchia also says that HBO is contemplating expanding interactive television to some other HBO-based films, but has no plans to develop it for the network's top series like "Sex in the City" and "The Sopranos." But he says he believes the narrative natures of the shows aren't the right fit for interactive programming anyway.

"They're our best shows, bar none, but there's nothing in the programming that really lends itself to do the kind of things that I can do now with the available technology," he said.

The award was handed out as part of the Academy's Engineering Awards presentation August 21. The 54th Annual Emmy Awards will take place on September 22.

The Academy presented HBO with a plaque rather than an Emmy statuette for the achievement.

"The interactive award is not an Emmy award per se, you don't take home the statue. It could eventually evolve into that," Zabel said. "Right now it's a plaque which commemorates the work of a particular production company. It's what we call a group award where the interactive group came together and decided what was worthy and then they told us that it should go to HBO this year."

Nevertheless, HBO is thrilled to get the award.

"To get their recognition saying this is the best application out there is..." said Spadavecchia, "it feels very good."