Survey: Battle on between PC and TV in Europe

A report from market research company Datamonitor has claimed that revenues from interactive TV will still deliver significantly less money than PCs by the year 2002. The survey, PC vs TV Interactive Services: The Revenue Battle, looks at Europe, shows that PC based services will reach $17 billion by 2002, still dwarfing TV based revenues at $6.7 billion. However, TV based interactive services will grow from a base of only $20 million last year. According to Datamonitor, revenues for Internet access are still the largest part of the PC based segment. Content based applications including games and gambling are set to grow in this sector. On the other hand, it will be shopping which will account for most revenues from interactive TV applications, said the report. That will generate $3 billion of revenues by 2002. But PC households which are online will begin to plateau by then, said the survey, reaching around the 40 million mark. ®