RE: UKNM: DTV Industry: Is There One?

[Richard Houston]

> Have I been looking in the wrong places for signs of life?


It appears so ... It's being taken very seriously by ouselves and others.

Look at the brands that are committed to supplying content into these new

spaces and follow your nose to the agency.


Perhaps the fact that it's actually a pretty complicated area is preventing

conjecture being thrown around on this list ... Or maybe the playing of

cards close to chests has to do with a crafty desire finally to

differentiate once and for all from websitedesigner.co.uk and chums. Wheat

from Chaff?


UK-DTVM anyone?


Richard Houston

Account Planner (Midland Bank), Brann Interactive

Tel: 0171 806 7071

Mob: 0961 116 059


> -----Original Message-----

> From:	Sajid Mohammed 

> Sent:	12 November 1998 08:59

>

To: uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

> Subject:	UKNM: DTV Industry: Is There One?

> 

> Interactive Digital TV is a fairly unknown quantity - only one

> operator (Sky Digital) has brought their offering to market, with four

> others (ON Digital, C&W, NTL/Virgin.Net & BIB) yet to do so. There are

> a few companies out there who set out to provide content for these new

> channels - Futurescape & Online Magic are two that leap to mind - but

> this nascent industry does not enjoy an especially high profile. Add

> in to this the fact that there are competing platforms (WebTV, Open

> TV, blah blah blah), incompatabilities (eg apparently ON Digital

> doesn't support Sky's EPG etc.) and general Brit-style cynicism.

> 

> Very few people in the 'new media' seem to be taking DTV seriously at

> all. We've all been here before ("The Internet? Isn't that just for

> programmers and video game fans?") but I would have thought that the

> impact of emerging technologies over the last few years would have got

> people wise to the fact that at least they deserve some intelligent

> discourse.

> 

> Meanwhile, the Americans seem to be going barmy about Digital.

> Companies such as Broadcom and Philips are offering single-chip

> solutions for enabling TV's to go digital. There is earnest discourse

> about the potential for ad revenue and so on. Redmond is on the case,

> so no doubt Larry Ellison is even now dreaming about taking out Bill

> Gates' TV aerial with a stinger missile.

> 


> There must be market opportunities opening up right now in the UK to

> service the needs of this emerging technology. Certainly, C&W and NTL

> seem to be taking a good approach - both will be offering Internet

> access via their set-tops as I understand it. And DTV feeds into a

> whole host of other pertinent issues: e-commerce and Masthead TV being

> just two. Have I been looking in the wrong places for signs of life?

> 

> Sajid Mohammed


********************

UKNM is sponsored by Excite UK, visit us at http://www.excite.co.uk.

Email Khalil Ibrahimi

khalilexcitecorp [dot] com (mailto:khalilexcitecorp [dot] com)

 to advertise on Excite.

********************

Change your UKNM subscription use http://www.chinwag.com/uknm.html