The First Cities consortium of a dozen companies researching interactive television services (CI No 2,024) will initially spend around $5m on research into consumer demand and the kind of technology necessary for providing the services. If the response is favourable, the group will wire up around 100,000 homes in an unidentified city. Consumers will receive a text, video and stereo sound on their televisions and personal computers, via phone lines, cable systems and fibre optic lines. Once the test is completed, First Cities will likely become an independent company with the existing backers as shareholders. It would provide the software and technology for interactive multimedia services but would not own the communications system. The kinds of figures involved in setting such system up are not known. Schools as well as homes are seen as targets, and services under consideration include movies on demand, picture phones, computerised libraries and video shopping or banking. The group includes Apple Computer Inc, Tandem Computers Inc, Bell Communications Research, Eastman Kodak Co, Corning Inc, North American Philips Corp, Southwestern Bell Corp, US West Inc, New York venture capital company Bieber-Taki, Rochester, joint IBM Corp and Apple venture Kaleida Labs Inc and Roseville, California-based cable television company Sutter Bay Associates. The group was assembled by Microelectronics & Computer Technology Corp chief executive Craig Fields, in answer to Japanese advances in co-operative res-earch. Talks with other companies interested in joining the consortium are under way.
