Friday, October 03, 2003

Can’t use your video recorder – then don’t try using interactive TV

I decided to take a deep breath and dive into the textual turmoil of the DTI report (see post on 1st Oct) to see what gems might be hiding amongst the 35 word sentences and techno-jargon.

The consultants responsible for the report (Generics) researched the numbers of people in the UK excluded from using digital TV and for what reasons. This data is provided in an Appendix document.

Generics estimates that nearly 9% of the population are excluded from using the interactive features of digital TV for reasons of motion, sensory and cognitive problems. You will need to read the report for detailed definitions of what they mean by these terms.

The age breakdown of this number is:
16- 49 (3.6%), 50-64 (11.9%), 65-74 (14.5%) and the 75+ (27.9%). This makes a grand total of nearly 4 million people. These figures do not include those people who have tried using iTV and either cannot make it work or decided it’s not worth the effort.

It is no small wonder that digital TV has not provided that exciting new marketing channel it once promised to be.

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