Interactive Demand Increases

A new report, by management consultants Datamonitor, forecasts rapid growth for broadband interactive services in the European consumer markets.

The report predicts that eight million European homes will receive broadband interactive services by the year 2000. These services are defined as broadband online services, e.g., high-speed Internet access and digital broadcasting services like video-on-demand, home-shopping and home-banking.

The report also claims that digital broadcasting will emerge as a significant competitive channel for interactive services. At present, around 3 million households across Europe are on-line. By 2000, according to the findings of this report, this number will have grown to 30 million. By the turn of the century 9.8 million households are also expected to have digital TV. These two groups are likely to overlap and those homes equipped with digital broadcasting receivers are also most likely to be on-line.

Datamonitor predicts that on-line services will dominate digital broadcasting to the year 2000 and beyond, even as digital broadcasting services are launched and achieve significant growth.

Datamonitor: 0171 625 8548