RTL Television, Germany’s leading commercial TV broadcaster, intends to add multimedia applications like e-mail, home shopping and home banking to its digital package on Astra (19.2 degrees East), transponder 89 (12.188 GHz H, SR 27.500, FEC 3/4).

According to set-top-box manufacturer Panasonic, a media co-operation was formed with RTL for that reason. The new services, produced by subsidiary RTL Newmedia, will enter the consumers’ living rooms through the regular TV set, without the need for a PC.

Panasonic underlined in a statement, that after 2005 more Europeans will use interactive television than surf the Internet with a PC, based on a study by Forrester Research (Europe’s iDTV Walls Come Down), adding that the study predicts that this year the number of homes that receive interactive television will double to 14 million.

The core of the co-operation between RTL and Panasonic is the new Panasonic set-top-box TU-DSF31, which includes a Common Interface, Dolby Digital 5.1, OpenTV and an in-built 14.4 analogue telephone modem for interactive services. The box will be launched on the consumer market in November for around DM 900 (E460.16).