Interactive TV has developed slowly over thirty years using mostly analogue technology and the telephone. In the 1970's digital technology was developed and distributed data networks for the general consumption were developed. The problem was that technology was not often linked to television. Early systems such as QUBE did try to make this link to the TV and successfully integrated the technology but costs were extremely high.

Interactive television reemerged as a strong vision in the 1980s as digital multimedia technology started to be developed. Many telephone companies and cable companies led service companies to design broadband digital systems. The main aims of these trials were to:
 

1.  Provide video-on-demand (VOD) which requires complex video servers, large bandwidth and sophisticated home decoders.  2.  Provide transactional services such as shopping and banking. These require secure transaction systems, electronic money, and links to the computer systems of the companies.

While many of these trials failed as commercial ventures, they have been a very important learning opportunity for all the companies involved. These failures as well as successes have been important in the development of this technology. They have made people reassess what they mean by interactive television and have given people a chance to experiment with how the technology could really be useful to them.

What we see emerging is a number of intermediate technologies that are not quite fulfilling the vision of full interactive television (Flat TV, DVD, etc.) . Today, the development of Interactive TV has continued to be important and is expected to become much more commonplace in the next 10 years. As American's increasingly have internet-connected computers in the their homes the desire and awareness of the possibilities of I-TV are becoming much more widespread.