Interactive TV firm targets NZ

New Zealanders could soon be perched in front of their televisions taking part in quiz shows or simply browsing the web if a United States company can find an investment partner here.

Paul Vachon, senior vice-president of the technology firm Liberate, said it wanted to invest millions of US dollars in New Zealand setting up interactive television.

The company has already set up interactive television in Britain and the US, and Mr Vachon has spent the past month meeting potential partners in Australia and New Zealand.

He confirmed he had talked to Sky Network Television and all "obvious" communication and broadcast companies.

If a deal was struck, interactive TV could be available in New Zealand by the middle of next year, said Mr Vachon.

The concept involves viewers using their television sets like a computer, accessing the internet and e-mail.

A viewer would be able to participate in game shows. Banking, education and instant shopping would be available.

Subscribers would need a keyboard, a telephone line and a "black box" containing the technology. The box would be leased, similar to the Sky decoder system.

Mr Vachon declined to reveal the cost of the service, but said that as with any new technology the first variations would be more expensive until mass use evolved.

Eventually, he said, interactive television would be very cheap.

Subscribers would be able to choose from packages of services.

"People will be able to watch what they want, when they want it.

"As you get more and more channels of content, you get more ways of sifting through that content to be able to watch what you want."

Mr Vachon said trials in Britain revealed that people who had the technology did not want to give it up.

High internet use by New Zealanders should help sell the product here, he said.

Liberate, which has a market capitalisation of $US3 billion ($7.56 billion), is owned by several high-profile technology companies, including Oracle, Netscape, America On Line and Sony.

The company already has an agreement with Ice Interactive to run a pilot scheme in New South Wales.

- NZPA