Short Take: E-commerce firms not ready for set-top boxes: study

A study by Jupiter Communications says that only 20 percent of Net firms have an e-commerce strategy in place to do business on set-top boxes. The study estimates there will be 5 million set-top boxes in use by 2002 and that Web firms will have to seek partnerships with cable operators to get into the market. "Web ventures need to realize that unlike the Internet market, the cable operator controls the relationship with the set-top customer," a Jupiter spokesperson said.