Analysts are predicting that the two separate deals announced between US cable giant Tele-Communications Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc, and TCI and Windows Corp for software for the next generation of interactive set-top boxes may not lead to significant revenue for the companies. Industry analysts claim a parallel with the hype about the ‘information superhighway’ in 1993, which fell apart in 1994. Instead they claim a maximum of 6.5 million US households could have interactive set tops by 2001, and this will cost many billions of dollars in investment by the cable companies in their networks.
