Last week's news that ITV Digital has been placed into
administration by its owners Granada and Carlton Communications
dented the growth of interactive television (iTV) in the UK.
And the subsequent admission by NTL, the UK's largest cable
operator, that it was at risk of running out of money, further
compounded the misery for those who have been talking up the
digital television revolution.
The enforced retirement of the country's favourite knitted monkey
will be just one of the many knock-on effects ITV Digital's demise
will have. The news provides a punctuation mark in the unfolding
story of digital Britain, and sets back the progress of the
development of iTV services as a new channel to market for
retailers.
The Government has blustered long and hard about shaping a digital
Britain. In ITV Digital, the UK's only terrestrial digital TV
platform, it saw a means of weaning UK consumers off the analogue
signal and into the digital world.
For the Government, delivering services to the public hinges upon
universal take-up of the digital signal, for it will enable the
entire population to access the Internet without the need to own -
or know how to use - a PC.
Now it may wish to revisit its plans to switch off the analogue
signal between 2006 and 2010.
The retail sector is equally keen to capitalise on this new means
of marketing to, and trading with, consumers.
Of all the clichés to emerge from the e-commerce boom and bust of
two years ago, one of the most hackneyed was the claim that the
Internet would open up totally new channels to market. In fact,
most companies have spurned online transactional commerce in favour
of harnessing the Net to improve internal processes and move closer
to customers and suppliers. But iTV's user-friendly promise to put
"the Internet on your TV" has tempted retailers such as Tesco.com,
to mould an iTV presence.
Where does the demise of ITV Digital leave Tesco.com and those
other retailers and service providers already ploughing money into
developing iTV channels to market?
In truth, the problems at ITV Digital do not mean retailers should
shelve all their iTV ambitions - after all, Sky still offers a
gateway to the iTV arena. But its large subscriber base and greater
clout makes it a pricier platform to operate upon than ITV Digital.
Faced with these uncertain times, retailers considering putting
substantial investment into developing iTV channels to market may
now want to exercise a little caution and re-evaluate their
strategy. In the present climate, a policy of "slowly, slowly,
catchee monkey" seems appropriate.