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The Consumer Environment
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Consumption now is a matter of choosing from among many options made available over the networks going into homes. Multimedia is not so much a medium in this world as simply a kind of product. It helps consumers manage many options, such as the thousands of channels transmitted into their homes, but is still very passive in nature.
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Multimedia offerings can be categorized into 3 groups:
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The largest category of multimedia offerings is educational material on stand-alone CD-ROMs as well as on public networks.
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CD-ROM applications are richer in content because the independence of the network allows premium compensation to developers as distribution is through software outlets. Technical limitations have restricted full distribution of CD applications over the public network as the one-way network cannot provide the interactivity that is required by the CD applications. A limited number of CD titles are available for shared CD/network use. Consumers must purchase the CD component of these titles to
be used in conjunction with the broadcast component.
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