News 12 Long Island is taking its local news coverage into the digital age, moving toward interactive programming that will allow viewers to play "news director."

With the launch of digital content in 2000, News 12 Regional Networks ¬ the largest and most watched regional television news service in the nation ¬ will move toward providing interactive, on-demand news and information tailored to individual customers' community, interests and activities.

The current Neighborhood News service, which began about three years ago, provides local news and community event information on Cablevision channel 1, supplementing regular coverage on channel 12. However, this service is limited to areas of east Nassau County. This service will end during December. After the new year, News 12 will launch the new service, eventually expanding to other areas of Nassau and Suffolk.

Through enhancing its website and, eventually, pushing digital video-on-demand, News 12 hopes to bolster interest in the technology as well as content. News 12, and its parent company Cablevision, are deeply invested in bringing digital content on television to light, which has some worried that local news coverage will suffer, at least during the transition.

"This thing called Neighborhood News is somewhat of an experiment in hyper-local news," said News 12 Senior Vice President Pat Dolan. "It was always thought that this service would be ideal for interactive technology. But there will be no interruption in the regular News 12 service, and most of the people getting involved in the interactive effort were formally news people."

The local news service was first supplemented on the News 12 website, which currently is limited to showing the top stories aired on the television broadcast, along with a selection of site links related to the topic.

"We're going to add raw tape, full length versions of news events," Dolan said. "Material that normally hits the cutting room floor will be presented as an option on the website. If County Executive Gulotta gives a press conference on the budget, you can get the whole news conference. If there's a dramatic fire we covered, there's probably a lot of dramatic footage we didn't air, and you'll get that. Essentially, it allows you to become your own news director."

Before the coming of digital cable, which will require an additional cable box, Dolan foresees all Long Island municipalities eventually being served by their own "virtual town hall" on the News 12 website. There, residents of towns, villages and hamlets alike will be able to get information about community events, civic organizations and other content related to news items.

"Each virtual town hall becomes a place for information, to make contacts," Dolan said. "Each community will have a chat room and nightly forums on certain issues."

The final step in the transition involves the video-on-demand technology, which will enable viewers to use their television as they would their computer, controlled by a hand-held unit rather than a mouse or keyboard. Cablevision has a lot invested in the new units, which will begin rolling out after the new year. Dolan expects that eventually all televisions will have the digital cable service, and that viewers will like being in control of their newscast.

"Digital cable is the direction all TV is going eventually," Dolan said. "You'll be able to click through the menu to get content which will be even more enhanced. You start getting a much more complete, thorough news experience than you could on the analog channel."