Special Report on Cable & Satellite: All the latest news that's fit to use: Interactive business television is pointing to the 21st century, writes Steve Homer

Imagine this. Your boss wants to know about the emerging problem with Venezuelan aluminium. Last night you instructed your computer to prepare a television news special for you. You come into the office, sit down at your desk, fire up your trusty PC and there you have it.

You have all the political reports on Venezuela over the last six months, reports on Venezuelan and other aluminium problems over the same period and an overnight dispatch for BBC Television from Gavin Esler in Caracas. What is more, all these reports will either use proper video images or still-frame multimedia information which, for example, will contain interactive charts that you can manipulate and import into spreadsheets.

While this may sound like fiction, a news service has just started pilot operation in the US that offers just these types of facilities.

Called NBC Desktop News (NBC DTN) and developed jointly by NBC, IBM and software company Nu Media, the system is operational in eight sites, with about 10 users per site. Initially the system is just being used within the pharmaceutical industry.

'This is the way news has to go. The broadcast news services are now saturated,' says Cynthia McCollough, marketing manager for NuMedia. 'You can only take so much 24-hour news. The next generation of news service for the business community and, who knows, perhaps also the domestic market, is interactive news. I think a lot of people would like to be able to search out the stories that genuinely interest and matter to them from the mass of sound and images that confront us daily.

'One person's vital news is something that could put another person to sleep. News values are a personal thing and this is something broadcast news can never fully address.'

News reports from around the world, from NBC and other traditional news services are picked up at NBC DTN headquarters. A brief summary is written and the images and data are re-transmitted by satellite. Some stories will also be sourced from newspapers and wire services, with pictures and graphics incorporated to make interactive news stories. Finally, specially produced news for specific industry groups will be made. (While the system is only being used by pharmaceutical companies for the trial period, there is a lot of potential for this service in the financial sector and many other business areas).

At the receiving end, the signals are picked up by a satellite dish and stored in a computer. At any convenient time during the day, people using the system can have a look at the list of news stories and see what has come in, what they have already looked at, and what they have yet to view. They can choose to view specific items and read background stories.

Most of the stories will be in the shape of television reports. These the user will be able to pause, rewind and fast forward. They will also be able to print out text items.

The system will also be able to deliver customised packages devloped in-house. These could be pep talks from the managing director, staff training or other information.

At the moment, the service is aimed at chief executive officers, marketing directors, PR people and the like, but the technology is not that complicated and, if the pilot works out, it is possible that a similar service could be launched in Europe. A domestic version is several years away but NBC DTN could be an indication of the type of television news we can expect in the 21st century.

(Photograph omitted)