INTERVIEW:
Question 1
What are the main differences between Europe and the United States in terms of the
professional and consumer market for multimedia ?
Answer
If we look first at the professional market, I think the clear difference is that the
market for multimedia titles in the United States is much more developed. One reason is,
of course, that there is one language - English - and that makes it a lot easier to sell a
commercial title. In fact, today there are approximately 5000 multimedia titles on the
market and it's now viable for a multimedia developer to make a very profitable business
out of the titles market. In a market like Italy for example, there are restrictions in
terms of the Italian language and the captive market available for the tiles and that's
one thing I've seen very clearly. If we look at the consumer market I think the big
difference is that people actually use and talk about multimedia a lot more, you see
multimedia being discussed on CNN for example on the big US TV channel. You also see
multimedia TV being actively used in the home. There is a home shopping network now, which
is available on Internet, which people do use. There is also a new service which is being
piloted in Florida called First Service Network, that enables video on demand so people
within Florida for example can actually use their Internet and pull down a video, so
there's a lot more active multimedia on a consumer level.
Question 2
Why do you think this kind of activity is missing in Europe ? Is it from a lack of
investment or belief in the development of this market ?
Answer
I don't think that it's lack of belief. I think it's inevitable that that's the way things
are going to be in the future. There is a great deal more difficulty in terms of linking
up infrastructures in Europe by the very fact that we're not one country and we don't have
one AT&T; we have a SIP and we have a France Télécom and we have a British Telecom,
so inevitably the infrastructure is going to be more difficult in Europe than it is in the
United States. But I don't think it's a question of belief. That is the way the future is
going to be so, we have to go there.
Question 3
There is a barrier between multimedia production in Italy and in the rest of the world.
How do you see this evolution ? What suggestions would you give Italian producers and
people involved in multimedia to get over this difference ?
Answer
I don't know if it's up to me to give them a suggestion as such but I think that it's
quite clear that there are some issues in Italy which need to be overcome quite quickly
for Italy to get up to the same level of development. If we look at Europe, even the
French market, for example, has a lot of activity. There's a lot of multimedia developers,
a lot of titles out there. People are able to make a profitable business out of it, large
companies are also taking multimedia development very seriously for their own corporate
advertising and production. And I haven't seen that so much yet in Italy. But I'm sure
that the large account market will move quite quickly because it's a necessity from a
leading edge point of view. In terms of the title development, then Italy probably has to
look outside of Italy as well for a real profitable business. The big market is an English
speaking market and I'm sure there is a market for Italian titles but it will always be
smaller than the international market. And in France, for example, you see a lot of French
developers who are well known outside of France with English titles basically; they have
been forced, if you like, to seek their profitability outside of the French market. I
think in terms of moving forward to the higher level, the Internet and interactive
television, Italy will move with the rest of Europe. It is starting, the infrastructure is
being developed; there are telecommunications issues that need to be solved basically but
that's not just Italy, that is pretty much across Europe.
Question 4
Do you perceive anything that is peculiar to Italy in terms of possible special production
that can be done in multimedia or maybe a special attitude like design. There is a way to
address cultural issues that is peculiar to Italy that could find a way in multimedia. Do
you perceive anything that should be used better because it's a good chance for Italy to
be Italian in an international multimedia market ?
Answer
From the outside point of view, one area that jumps straight to mind, of course, is
promoting Italy as a country from a tourist perspective. I don't know how many CD ROMs are
available which promote Italian culture. You know, we're in Rome. The wealth of culture
here is phenomenal and I'm sure for travel agencies, for the tourist offices, for any form
of travel company to promote Italy as a country, then, that is a fantastic way to do it. I
haven't actually seen a lot to date. And the other element, of course, is design.
Classically, Italy is very well known and there's a big market for consumer titles
covering those areas.
Question 5
What is the state of this outgoing process of the multimedia revolution today ? Where are
we now in this ?
Answer
The reality today is that we're still in a multimedia environment which is based on CD
ROM. There are advantages to CD ROM, there are limitations. One of the most exciting
developments today is CD-Plus. The Rolling Stones have a new interactive CD which is just
available now, which is an absolutely fantastic development. That was developed, I have to
say, as our product. And you know I think that is one of the most exciting revolutions
today.
Looking to the future it's clear that we're going towards the Internet. The Internet at
the moment is actually quite a static medium. When you look at the Internet, it's text. OK
there are some graphics but it's not that exciting. And we are working very closely with
Netscape and with other Internet companies in order to embed our products in their
browsers so that you can actually have dynamic multimedia over the Internet. That is now
reality and in fact we will be shipping very shortly our first version of Director, one of
our main products, which would enable multimedia over the Internet.
Moving forward from that, then we're into the whole world of interactive television.
Today it's basically very much a question of developing for the interactive television
operating systems. We're working with Olivetti for example, with Microware, Apple, with
all the main interactive television providers. You know, it's an infrastructure problem
basically today. And we've got a long way to go down the line.
Question 6
Do you believe that Internet will compete with interactive television?
Answer
I don't know whether it's a question of competing; I think it's much more a question of
being complementary. People will have a choice. There are certain things they will want to
do on the Internet because they can do it in their time, because it suits them more to
look for certain pieces of information over the Internet, for example banking. I think
home banking isn't going to be by interactive television, it's going to clearly stay on
the Internet. But if you look at other areas such as shopping, I can imagine that shopping
would be much more appealing over interactive television than it would purely on the
Internet. I may be wrong; I think it's very complementary.
Question 7
Do you think that in the near future we're going to see something that still does not
exist at all today in terms of multimedia development?
Answer
I'm sure there will be. I'm not sure that I'm the one to predict what that's going to be.
But you know, I think for the short term, medium term we're looking very clearly at the
Internet and then we're looking slightly further ahead at interactive television; beyond
that, that is beyond me.
Question 8
There has been an attitude in Europe, especially in France in the past, towards the movie
industry, a way of protecting the internal culture by activating certain legislation and
so on. Do you think that Internet will pose this problem again, where there are countries
that are trying to promote and protect their culture from this possible undifferentiated
world ?
Answer
I think the bigger problem we're likely to see with the Internet is one of governments and
companies being protective over their information because actually it poses as a real
problem or a real potential threat in that effectively today anybody can say anything on
the Internet. I think that's more likely to be a problem. I don't foresee a major cultural
issue.
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