Will interactive technology and multi-channel digital TV be used by mainstream retailers as a medium for purchasing goods from home?

TV set ownership is universal with 97% of households - what factors will influence the demand for digital TV?

Is it important for interactive TV-based shopping services to be closely attuned to entertainment?

This is Mintel's second Special Report on ownership and use of digital TV technology. Since the first, in 1999, the sector has expanded rapidly in terms of household penetration of the technology, but a lot less rapidly from the perspective of TV-based home shopping based on iTV (interactive TV) technology.

Will interactive technology and multi-channel digital TV be used by mainstream retailers as a medium for purchasing goods from home?

TV set ownership is universal with 97% of households - what factors will influence the demand for digital TV?

Is it important for interactive TV-based shopping services to be closely attuned to entertainment?

This is Mintel's second Special Report on ownership and use of digital TV technology. Since the first, in 1999, the sector has expanded rapidly in terms of household penetration of the technology, but a lot less rapidly from the perspective of TV-based home shopping based on iTV (interactive TV) technology.

The report considers the development of TV-based shopping and focuses on the use, and potential use, of interactive technology and multichannel digital TV (DTV) by mainstream retailers as a medium for purchasing goods from home. The report provides an overview of the retailing implications of developments associated with DTV and assesses its potential as a shopping medium. The report provides details on who is likely to use it and what they are likely to use it for, and then analyses which retailers are best placed to exploit the potential of the medium as a selling channel.

The report takes as its main theme the proposition that:

"iTV-based home shopping service providers have not convinced consumers that the technology is suited to shopping from home. The view that iTV-based shopping services will need to be promoted by making them more closely attuned to entertainment, associated with the way that consumers interface with TV, rather than focusing on the basic functionality of purchasing goods, is assessed."

Throughout the report, an assessment of how developments in TV-based home shopping contrast to developments in other home shopping channels, especially the Internet, are given. Convergence between TV-based and PC-based technologies is also discussed in detail. This is becoming an increasingly important facet of the development of services as some TV-based home shopping utilises the Internet through portal style access for TV viewers.