Product details

The former Cable & Wireless Hongkong Telecom (HKT) launched the world''s first commercial interactive television (iTV) service with a fanfare in March 1998. Nevertheless, its performance in the first two years of operations had not lived up to the company''s expectations. Many still saw it as a traditional pay television service instead of a multimedia interactive service. Meanwhile, the company began to shift the focus to its broadband Internet service. In August 2000, HKT was taken over by Pacific Century Cyberworks (PCCW). The main focus of PCCW was the Network of the World (NOW) project, a convergence service of telecommunications, computing and television technologies independent of the distribution platform. This case describes the marketing efforts made by HKT in the first two years of iTV''s operation. It examines how, if possible, iTV could fit into the newly merged company, and outlines the initial marketing strategy of NOW, a new digital convergence service.