Interactive TV Interactive television is also making a mark on the show floor. Consumers in the United States are just beginning to get a glimpse at it, but it's a concept that's thrived in Europe for nearly six years. One feature for die-hard fans was a flashing icon that indicated the action was, right at that moment, heating up in another match, so the viewer could quickly click onto that game. Change takes time NAB officials say some competing standards and legal issues have slowed the growth of interactive TV in the United States, but its time will come. And with that, the enormous market of one-click shopping.
Information is encrypted from the remote control to the back office.
But you do want to have a PIN number, so your kids can't order 50 CDs a day. Another major theme at the NAB convention is DTV, and the looming, government-imposed deadline of 2002 for all commercial stations to send their signal digitally. While NAB representatives say they feel there's some wiggle room in meeting the government deadlines, there's also the fact that the public isn't clamoring for digital TV sets. We're just two years into the digital TV revolution. This is a marathon, not a sprint.