LONDON AN armchair revolution aimed at putting home shopping, banking and the Internet at the fingertips of every television viewer in Britain was unveiled yesterday. BSkyB, BT, Midland Bank and Matsushita Electric joined forces to launch British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB), a £265 million venture, which will subsidise the launch of digital satellite services.
More than 200 channels will be available by next spring to BSkyB subscribers who purchase a £200 digital set top box decoder. By the summer another 200 channels and a range of interactive services are scheduled to come on stream.
Consumers would be able to book holidays, buy concert tickets and play computer games through their TV remote control. The Internet - currently available in an estimated 1.5 million homes - would theoretically be within reach of 22 million television households and viewers would be able to send e mail.