The interactive home: technologies, strategies & business opportunities

Abstract

The term Interactive Home refers to the impact that broadband, interactive networks will have on households. It is axiomatic by now that interactivity will affect many companies and many careers. The author provides an overview of the topic for corporate strategists, money managers and entrepreneurs. It explains the technology and the strategies of many key players and tries to draw reasoned conclusions about winners, losers and business opportunities. Digitization of content and the advent of broadband, two-way networks will transform communication to and from the American home, creating new markets and radically transforming existing delivery systems. The late-1990s version, known as full service networks (FSNs), will be preceded by a variety of what we are calling "partial service networks" - in particular two: Interactive services delivered to PCs over high-speed modems, which the cable industry will begin deploying by 1995 and cable networks featuring downloaded "pseudo-interactivity" and hundreds of digitally compressed video channels, also beginning by 1995.