To: w2j2 who wrote (815 ) 10/16/1998 5:31:00 PM From: J Fieb Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 4808
Probably not related to FC, but who knows? Matsushita sees huge DTV market in Japan............................ biz.yahoo.com October 16, 7:28 am Eastern Time Matsushita sees huge Japan digital TV market TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The launch of a new system of digital broadcasting in Japan in 2000 will have a revolutionary impact on the audio-visual market, stimulating demand for new televisions and network-related products, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co said on Friday. Matsushita's senior managing director Kunio Nakamura told a news conference that replacement demand for digital TVs in the Japanese market would reach one million units a year. ''The impact will be revolutionary, bringing in new TV sets and a flurry of new network-related products to the market, '' said Nakamura. A Japanese satellite broadcasting service currently beamed to 11 million households will go digital in 2000. Matsushita expects the digital service to take off quickly, and the number of subscribers to surpass those of exisiting digital pay-TV service providers, such as SkyPerfecTV and DirecTV, by 2002. The digital pay-TV services use a different platform than that to be used by the new digital satellite broadcasting system. Matsushita estimates the number of households subscribing to the new digital satellite service in 2004 at 15 million, and those for SkyPerfecTV and DirecTV combined at 10 million. Nakamura said digital television's interactive functions would prompt the convergence of TVs and computers, making possible various new services such as those providing medical advice and information via the broadcast network. Matsushita planned to launch by 2000 home-use digital network servers that could accumulate 100 hours of video information, Nakamura said.