In the battle for viewers, cheap, higher-quality digital tv will prove more attractive to consumers than whatever degree of interactivity may be offered by the internet.
“It is difficult to see the attraction of services such as video on demand (VOD) – once seen as a shining light for the future of Internet services – when intelligent devices such as the personal video recorder (PVR) will enable a do-it-yourself VOD.” said Margaret Hopkins, co-author of the report.
It is no longer the case that inteactive tv (iTV) is basing its services on pre-existing internet models but is instead developing new services in keeping with customer demand and the limits and abilities of its technology.
“We can already see,” said co-author Rupert Wood, “services such as Internet over TV and pseudo-Internet iTV walled gardens, for example BSkyBÂ’s Open, being quickly superseded by services such as TV betting that draw directly upon the strength of the broadcast content.”
One area of where broadband will always dominate, says the report, is pornography where broadband web access has emerged as the ideal delivery mechanism.
