Abstract:

The paper begins by examining the rhetoric of current commentary about the "information superhighway". Though that commentary has become somewhat polarized between optimists and pessimists, their respective arguments are impossible to mediate without direct market experience. To that end. Time Warner is engaged in an ambitious market trial of digital interactive television to begin later this year in Orlando, Florida. The paper explains the nature of the technology that underlies this trial, reviews the services that will be offered, and sketches the research program that will facilitate learning from the trial. It also points to similar trials being conducted by competing companies in other markets in the U.S. Though it presents some information from pre-trial surveys of consumer perceptions and preferences, it argues that with technologies this new, it is impossible to make convincing claims about "what consumers want" prior to actual market experience. In its final sections, it speculates on the possible implications of the growth of these networks for media, for advertising, and for market research.