The lack of an historical perspective is related in part to weak institutional memories: many
ITV projects have not succeeded and their institutional sponsors have chosen to let the bodies
remain buried. However, there is also a significant definitional issue. What does interactive
television include and not include? There is no consensus. So, a telephone company that is
planning to build a state-of-the-art switched video service over fiber optic cables can argue that
theirs is the first true ITV service since nothing in the past could provide what their new system
will offer. In fact, most planned new services are likely to have been tested before, albeit on an
earlier generation of technology.