Interactive TV: It's easier than flying a plane

NEWS Fledgling technology Interactive TV has hit a hurdle in the popularity stakes, being branded more difficult to use than a computer and only marginally easier than flying a plane. In a survey by the Independent Television Commission, more than 1,000 consumers were asked to rate 19 products in terms of their perceived ease of use. Interactive TV was perceived to be the fourth most difficult of the products to use, just ahead of flying a plane and operating a sewing machine. Computers came in fifth place, trailing behind household favourites the kettle and the hairdryer. Digital TV was sixth and the dreaded video recorder seventh. The news comes on the same day as a Schema report that states that European interactive entertainment revenues generated though digital TV market for will reach £12.5bn in four years - an annual growth rate of 81 per cent up to 2005.