ITV--marketplace's potential

　　Book a holiday, juggle your bank accounts, order th at Beatles CD, bet on the big match, choose a new car, buy your Thanksgiving turkey—but whatever you do, don't get up from in front of the television.

　　That at least is the message of the T-commerce evan gelists, and in a world where neologisms have become a badge of current awareness, you'd better know that it m eans buying stuff via your interactive TV (iTV). If thi s sounds like just the latest in a series of things tha t promised to change your life but didn't—the Apple Mac , WAP phones, digital photography—then think again.

　　Some of the industry's most reliable forecasters be lieve T-commerce will provide exactly the fillip that e -commerce needs if it is to avoid relegation to the pre ferred pastme of technology nerds.

　　It's going to be a fairly major part of e-commerce— it will probably make up around 25 percent of e-ecommer ce spending in Britain and 15 percent in Europe, by the end of 2005.

　　It's already growing fast. In Britain, some 10 perc ent of digital TV subscribers have made some form of iT V purchase, a proportion that is growing by roughly two percentage points every six months.

　　Because Interactive TV is a digital medium, and Bri tain has one of the highest digital TV penetrations amo ng Europe's 9.5 million digital households.

　　Even in the United States, where interactive TV has yet to take off on any real scale, Forrester believes i nteractive consumerism via the TV set will generate $25 billion in new revenues—by 2005.

　　Leisure travel is another area expected to show exp onential sales growth via iTV. Watching a travel progra m on, a viewer could choose a link to a travel agent of fering that destination, and once there, call up video footage of the island and hotels available.

　　But it gets better. Eventually, users of an iTV sys tem could even talk live via a videolink to a travel ag ent, overcoming the main limitation of current e-commer ce.

　　Such levels of interactivity will In probably be se en first on "walled garden" systems, since it will take some time before Internet TV link-ups offer enough band with to carry high-quality duplesx(two-way)video.

　　Another service seemingly tailormadefor iTV is gamb ling. Online betting in Europe, estimated to be worth j ust $55 million last year, is expected to soar to $5.5 billion by 2004, according to recent market research. A nd the potential in the US is even greater. The America n gambling market is already worth over $70 billion, an d a lot of the gaming that will take place on iTV will be new business only possible through this medium.

　　Reuters

　　Notes:

　　1. juggle:玩戏法

　　2. evangelists:福音传道者

　　3. neologism:创造或使用新词

　　4. badge:象征

　　5. relegation:降级

　　6. nerd:讨厌的人

　　7. exponential:指数

　　8. link-up:连接

　　9. duplex:双方；双的