European TV shopping seen doubling by 2008

Television shopping in Europe is projected to nearly double to €8.8 billion by 2008 as more households sign up for digital TV service, according to a study released this week.

UK television watchers are the most likely to buy goods from shopping channels, arrange travel services and spend money gambling over the TV, with German and French viewers second and third, respectively, media researchers Screen Digest and Goldmedia found.

"The greater the number of channels that can be seen, the more special interest and highly specialised channels will emerge and the more potential there will be for the launch of new TV shopping, direct response TV and travel shopping channels," the report's authors wrote.

In 2003, European "T-commerce" sales were €4.5 billion, the bulk of which derived from 24-hour shopping channels, according to the report. By comparison, the two biggest shopping channels in the United States - QVC and HSN - reported about $6.9 billion of revenues last year.

QVC is owned by Liberty Media Corp. and HSN by InterActiveCorp.

Interactive capabilities are a big driver for spending on goods offered for sale on European TV, although such services are not widely available from US pay-TV providers.

For example, about 35 per cent of QVC's total UK orders now come from a "buy button" option on the remote control supplied by satellite TV provider BSkyB.

Digital TV is expected to reach 40 per cent of European homes by 2008, up from about 18.5 per cent in 2003.

In Germany, even though consumers are willing to shop using non-traditional means, digital television has been slow to take hold. The opposite is true in France, where the bigger challenge is to change shopping habits.

In 1996, the UK and Germany each had two shopping channels, but there are now 40 in the UK and just three in Germany, Goldmedia analyst Grit Schuster said.

According to the study, UK TV commerce is expected to grow to €3.8 billion in 2008 from €2.2 billion in 2003, while Germany's is seen jumping to €2.7 billion from €1.3 billion over the same span.

Spain, which has only one 24-hour TV shopping channel, European Homeshopping, is also seen as a healthy country for growth. Department store chain El Corte Ingles runs interactive TV shopping applications such as Canal Club on Digital Plus.