Deutsche Bundespost Telekom will start testing an interactive television service this year with a pilot video-on-demand project with 50 to 100 subscribers in Berlin, the state phone company told Reuter. The trial will be conducted the Media Service GmbH digital television services company formed by Telekom, media group Bertelsmann AG and Bavarian media mogul Leo Kirch. Media Service will use Telekom’s existing cable television infrastructure, and also plans to test home shopping and pay-per-view programmes. There was no word on which companies will supply the video servers or set-top decoders to be used in the pilot trial.
