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To: Peter V who wrote (41108)	5/14/1999 5:53:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Digital TV's New Driving Force Interactivity now bringing consumers to DTV From Electronic News--April 26, 1999 By Peter Brown Las Vegas--The hot buzz here at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) '99 conference is not the entry of high definition television (HDTV) into the consumer market, but the emergence of interactivity and data services as the primary drivers of digital television (DTV) sales. "DTV, and more specifically HDTV, is no longer just about better video and audio," said Alexandre Tzonis, chief executive officer at software developer Lysis S.A., based in Lausanne, Switzerland. "We are seeing everyone talk about information data services being the key driver in influencing consumers to change to DTV." Up until recently, the main driver in digital television was the quality brought by high-definition programming. The clarity of picture, the enhanced sound, and the lifelike images were the reason OEMs believed consumers would buy DTVs. Now that DTV has come to market, and initial sales have been lackluster, it appears that quality is not enough for most consumers to invest in DTV. Many consumer electronics companies now believe that the key to getting viewers to switch from analog to digital is to offer consumers something they can't get from their current TV offerings. Superior audio and video is one thing, but being able to access the Internet, check stock quotes, buy products directly on-line or find additional information on a program or sports event is another thing altogether. "Initially, broadcasters and OEMs were focused on bringing HDTV to market," said Craig Tanner, executive director at the American Television Systems Committee (ATSC). "Now things have changed and more are becoming educated in the ways of interactivity." "Second generation HDTVs are now all geared to support (interactivity) and as we move forward data services are going to be driving DTV, not the video and audio," said Alan Yates, director of platform marketing for Microsoft WebTV, a division of Microsoft Corp. For OEMs and broadcasters, the rush is now on to add new interactive features to their products and services. "Interactive television didn't appear as fast as we thought 10 years ago, but now it is happening and it is happening right now," said Larry Ellison, president and CEO of Oracle Corp., in his keynote address here. The new approaches to interactivity being promoted in the DTV world are altering the nature of television and web access, observers noted. "The convergence model has changed the entire DTV landscape," said Mehdi J. Aminian, CEO of Singularis, a company creating digital content for DTV. "The old model of a PC in the den and a TV in the living room no longer exists. They are becoming one machine and what we get from this is the ability to do more and more interactivity. This is driving people to adopt DTV." Despite all the activity and progress on the interactive television front, consumer OEMs and broadcasters still are constrained by a lack of a standard approach to these services. However, at least two standards for this are in the works by the ATSC and the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATLEF). Regardless, interactivity is on its way into the home through the PC, the set-top box and yes through HDTV. As most industry players now agree, interactivity has become a driver, not a sideliner in the DTV market.