While the PC folks have been massing their forces inside the little box on top of the television, they have been gazing nervously at the floor in front of the television, where the game console manufacturers have been making noise about things like Web browsers, digital cameras, and various other gadgets. Judging by what the PC folks are saying about interactive television, I'm betting on none of the above. You'll Be Able to Do From Your TV in the Future. The finest minds of a generation have managed to come up with the same ideas everyone has been trumpeting for 10 years. An article in issue 3.07 of Wired Magazine discussed the interactive television trials in the summer of 1995.
Interactive television is described as offering e-commerce, gaming, time shifting, and Web browsing.
So in five years, people have added chat to the list. The TV has always been a time-wasting device . The average American watches between four and five hours every day, according to Nielsen statistics. Yet, the standard ITV list still basically consists of ways to make your TV time-wasting more efficient. It is disappointing that so little thought seems to have gone into what the future of television really could be.