Digital Mogul Study Warns of iTV Market Delays
  SAN FRANCISCO, May 04, 2001 -- The nascent interactive television (ITV) industry is in peril, even though it has the potential to dwarf the consumer Internet. In a comprehensive industry study just released, digital mogul predicts that if the current course is not corrected, the lack of interoperability and standards will push the rollout of a full suite of ITV services to 2006, and the coalescing of a singular nation-wide or global ITV market to 2008, if it does not scuttle the market altogether. One contributing factor to this later-than-expected service maturation is that the industry has yet to gain a significant understanding of what consumers really want from ITV, though billions of dollars are being spent on service rollouts.

"Compared to the potential for ITV, the business to consumer Internet was merely an exhibition match," said Lisa Voldeng, CEO and Chief Analyst for digital mogul. "What's going to quash ITV's potential is that everyone is looking for market leverage by being a so-called `Market Gorilla,' to borrow a technology investment term. The Gorillas' exclusionary strategic tactics and wham bam approaches to service rollouts are creating non-interoperable systems for advertisers, and service suites for consumers whose desires are as yet unknown."

digital mogul is now counseling its clients, who are primarily entertainment, media, technology and finance executives making strategic decisions about how to capitalize assets, to seek market leverage through the depth and breadth of their relationships, rather than using exclusionary methods. Meanwhile, content providers and advertisers should plan for a near to middle term heterogeneity in both ITV platforms and modes of content. The report is available online at the digital mogul site.

Audience for Digital Mogul's Findings
digital mogul is highly regarded for providing prescient analysis of trends in the entertainment, media and technology industries and communicating them to individuals within those industries.

"The problem with digital analysis -- that is, analysis about things digital -- is that it too often states (or restates) the obvious, the expected, the known. digital mogul is a blast of freshness -- pointed, critical, always smart. It's not for everyone, which is its strength. The more vertical, the better. And digital mogul is as good as it gets." -- Marc Landsberg, EVP of Internet Strategies, Leo Burnett


About digital mogul
"b.s- and buzzword-free" digital mogul is an analysis, research and consulting group that counsels entertainment, media, technology and finance executives on how to adapt, create and capitalize assets for the rapidly evolving entertainment and media landscape. Advisors include Robert Dowling, Publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and Andrew Orgel, co-founder of MTV and A&E. Strategic partners include CENTRIS Market Research and TriArche Research Group.

For more information, visit www.digitalmogul.com.



Source digital mogul press release
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