Well, CBS Interactive is a branch of CBS, the broadcaster.
A decade and a half ago, its reach was greater than Netflix's.
My point wasn't the scale of the hosting network but the failure of broadcaster- (or program-originator-) centric "interactive" television concepts. I think the trope existed even when Neil Postman was writing his books ... not sure if this shows up in Amusing Ourselves to Death or Technopoly, or both, though I think it does. They're 1980s / 1990s. Postman died in 2003 though, so if it was him, it was early in Internet time.
Wikipedia lists attempts dating to the 1950s, though these were not networked interactions. Those existed, however, by 1977.
