Cable and Wireless to lauch 200 channels next year. They need some headend gear soon................................
nytsyn.com
British 'TV Mall' Will Provide Interactive TV With Digital Service
By CHRISTINE HARPER
c.1998 Bloomberg News
LONDON -- Cable & Wireless Communications Plc, the U.K.'s largest cable television company, said it's preparing an interactive television service that will allow customers to bank, shop and get news through their TV set.
The ''TV Mall'' will be available free to customers of CWC's digital television service, scheduled for the second half of 1999. It will compete against British Interactive Broadcasting, a venture between satellite television company British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc, British Telecommunications Plc, HSBC's Midland Bank Plc and Japan's Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., which is also planned for next year.
CWC is working with Barclays Bank Plc, British Airways Plc, Littlewoods Home Shopping Group and Granada Media Group to offer home shopping, banking and travel services. It's also working with Associated New Media and ITN in developing news services. The service, which will be provided via high-capacity cable modems and will use Internet technology, will help CWC compete with BSkyB and other broadcasters launching digital television.
''It seems like CWC, which really wasn't well placed, has caught up with them and overtaken'' British Interactive Broadcasting, said Jim Ross, an analyst at ABN Amro. ''From a technological point of view it's really an advanced sort of service.''
CWC, whose service is available to about 25 percent of Britain's population, already offers Internet services via analog telephone lines but has been slow to develop faster Internet links through high-capacity cable modems.
The ''TV Mall'' will provide this capacity through television set-top boxes based on Internet technology, giving it an advantage over BiB's service based on traditional modems and phone lines. All of the proposed digital services will require customers to buy a set-top box to decode the digital signals.
''Consumers will get real-time high-speed interactivity via the broadband network, without the need to pay for an additional standard telephone line,'' said Graham Wallace, chief executive of CWC, in a statement.
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