Summary

Four major Japanese electronics companies — Matsushita, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi — agreed to form a joint venture to deliver data and two-way interactive services over digital television. The announcement coincided with Japan's planned launch of full digital satellite broadcasting in December 2000.

Source document circa 2000 preserved as-is

Monday, October 23, 2000

October 23, 2000 12:00am
Source: Kyodo News International

Kyodo: TOKYO, Oct. 20 (Kyodo) _ Four major Japanese electronics companies have agreed to form a joint company to offer data and two-way broadcasting services utilizing digital televisions, officials said Friday.

The agreement will be formally announced by the presidents of the four companies -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. -- at a joint press conference on Monday, the officials said.

As digital broadcasting is capable of electronic commerce and other advanced services via TVs, the four companies set up a joint company in July to study ways of providing services that will combine digital broadcasting with the Internet.

Broadcasting services are becoming increasingly digitized. For example, digital broadcasting via broadcasting satellite (BS) will get fully underway in December, while next-generation communications satellite (CS) broadcasting is slated to begin next year.