E-commerce in Spain
(Fernández, 2002), suggests these users are more familiar with interactive media. This
convergence, in the same service, of television with access to the Internet leads users to divide
their leisure time between the two, in a complementary way (Kang & Atkin, 1999).
Multi-channel television in general, and cable television in particular, constitute an
ecosystem of the abundance of media, not only because of the variety of television channels
available, but also as a consequence of the combination of television and access to the Internet
and the options which are provided by DVD, or video-tape or video-disc, in what some authors
have called “the hyper-world of abundance” (Neuendorf, Jeffres & Atkin., 2000:196).
By the beginning of 2004, multi-channel television was being received in 2.7 million
Spanish households which subscribed to either Digital + or to a cable operator (1.7 million to
Digital + and 1 million to cable) (CMTb, 2004). All these households have access to the
purchase of movies, soccer matches and events (concerts and bullfighting corridas) via PPV,
which is one of the ways to buy programs. Moreover, the subscribers to Digital + are able to buy
goods, play games, do online-banking and credit their mobile phones through the use of the
remote control, meaning that the television itself becomes a device for electronic commerce (t-
commerce). In 1999 multi-channel subscribers in Spain had more technological equipment in
their homes in terms of television, DVD and video recorder, Hi-Fi music centre, computer and
connection to the Internet, than the average Spanish household (GaritaonandĂa, Fernández &
Oleaga, 2001).
We decided to base our research project on “digital households” because, due to the new
National Technological Plan of Digital Terrestrial TV, passed by the Spanish Government in
2005, the deadline for the switch-over to digital television in Spain is 3
rd
April 2010. From that
date onwards all television in Spain will be digital and, therefore, we wished to analyze the
predictors of e-commerce among households which currently have digital television, as this
2
Convention