Market, technologies and stakes in the digital video display terminals sector.
• Terminals: digital set-top boxes, digital integrated TV sets, DVD, TV over PC and network computers.
• Factors for technological evolution:- strategic components (screens, audio, software, conditional access, storage…);- downloading;- digital content protection.
• The players' offers and strategies (Hitachi, Matsushita, Phillips, Sony, Thomson Multimedia…).
• Market trends and forecasts: the United States, Japan, and Europe (11 countries).
• In 2005, 173 million homes across the world will have access to a digital service.
A major transition is now underway: one which will radically alter the perception of the TV set that we have maintained for several decades now.
TV programmes already come into viewers homes via several terminals, the most common of which is the traditional analogue TV hooked up to a set-top box.
Other technical solutions do exist, however, even though no single one has yet to forge itself a solid position:- The first integrated digital TVs got off to a rocky start on the North American and British markets, where they were launched in early 1999;- Television reception via PC is now a reality, and is improving;- DVDs, game consoles and the Net all use increasingly sought-after TV resources
• The technical systems employed reveal divergent choices from one country to another:- the United States: cable still in the lead, with satellite now close on its heels;- Japan: satellite making great strides, to the detriment of other technologies;- Europe: widely varying national situations, characterised by satellite taking the lead over cable and only tentative inroads being made by digital terrestrial.

• The new landscape in the consumer electronics industry, with analysis based on the strategies being deployed by the market's top players: Canal+, Hitachi, Liberate, Matsushita, Microsoft, Motorola/General Instrument, Open TV, Pace Micro, Philips, Scientific Atlanta, Sharp, Sony, Thomson Multimedia