Payment Solutions for Services in Interactive TV : A Comparative Evaluation of Electronic Payment Systems

Abstract: The market for digital TV is developing and some industry actors focus on interactive TV. Interactive content and services that previously only were able to use through a standard PC are now available to use through the TV set. To distribute the services to the TV a so called set top box with broadband connection needs to be used. Such a box can be described as a unit where a standard PC and a digital TV receptor are integrated. This thesis aims to investigate the market for electronic payment solutions with a focus on payment for interactive content and services in digital TV. The presumptive services are many which lead to a relative complex analysis of how they should be paid for. What kind of service is it really to be paid for? In order to conduct an appropriate analysis this thesis contains an identification of five different service-/content types. The grouping we have conducted is in so called On Demand services, Voice over IP, Shopping, Interactive TV and web services. In order to be able to conduct a relevant assessment of how the distributed services should be paid for the understanding of the market situation is utterly important. Therefore the thesis contains a pre study of the different market actors that can be related to a set top box and interactive TV. The study of eight different actors on the Swedish market provides an overview of content providers’ as well as payment companies’ view on how interactive content and services should be paid for. The result from the thesis is a recommendation on how an electronic payment solution should be designed and important aspects to think of. One of the key outcomes is that different services needs different types of payment solutions which implies that you should first decide on what type of services that are to be provided before a decision is made on the payment solution. A byproduct from the thesis is the analysis model that facilitates analysis of services as well as payment solutions and - methods related to electronic payments and interactive media.