Financial markets show how multimedia techniques can be harnessed to work objectives, but it will be some time before this is a popular subject for the mass media, Reuters Holdings Plc chief executive Peter Job told the conference. He was also unsure how speedily techniques of multimedia will be applied to television in the home. He cited Reuters Financial Television, launched on June 2, which provides a range of real-time television coverage and specialist programming aimed at the foreign exchange, debt and treasury financial markets as an example of how technologies have combined to produce a new product for the markets. But he said that the technology is still expensive and Reuters does not expect to make profits from it until cheaper equipment is developed. Most users view the service on a computer window alongside displays of Reuters text and data, but the standard personal computer requires an additional board that adds to the cost. We cannot extend this product instantly to all time-zones. Video communication is far too expensive still in some parts of the world and we also expect to run into regulatory problems preventing foreign broadcasters from permeating the atmosphere in certain national environments, he added. So be warned, all those who think that tomorrow has arrived – it hasn’t.
