"Intel backing out of TV initiative"
Chip maker's leaving of Intercast could be a big blow for TV-on-PC.
By Karen J. Bannan, Inter@ctive Week
August 16, 1999 6:07 AM PT
Intel is quietly phasing out Intercast, the company's interactive television service targeted for the personal computer.
Instead, according to Marta Hasler, strategic marketing manager at Intel's Home Products group, the company will back an interactive television specification that is being engineered for TVs. Intel's move is a major setback for efforts to quickly bring TV broadcasts to PC screens.
Intel's (Nasdaq:INTC) Intercast is based on technology designed to deliver enhanced content to PCTV cards using a broadcast channel's Vertical Blanking Interval signal, which carries closed-captioning information separate from the rest of the voice and data being transmitted. Broadcasters insert a limited amount of data into the VBI to simulate interactivity. About 10 broadcasters use Intercast technology regularly, including CNN, ESPN, Lifetime Television and QVC.
Not robust
VBI, however, is not considered sufficiently robust to carry the amount of data necessary for interactive advertising or video streaming.
Intel, which cited the need for a universal standard, will start to wean broadcasters away from Intercast and toward the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum's specification, a HyperText Markup Language-based interactive TV initiative for TVs. Intel is one of the founding members of the ATVEF.
"Intercast has played a key role in laying down the foundation for these new capabilities," said Barbara Lopez, Intel's director of digital broadcast programs.
The ATVEF specification now available, ATVEF 1.1, is in development, but one main difference between Intercast and the ATVEF is bandwidth. Today, broadcasters transmitting Intercast programming can send up to 100,000 bits per second using the VBI. ATVEF-compliant broadcasts can send - directly in a video stream - up to 19.4 megabits per second, giving content providers greater bandwidth flexibility.
"Intel has been very active in the ATVEF development, which is why they may not be hesitant to phase out one technology in favor of a new one," said Richard Doherty, a director at The Envisioneering Group, a technology consultancy.
Pieces are better
There's also the lure of a bigger audience. In the past three years, 600,000 PCTV cards were shipped, said Kevin Hause, an analyst at International Data Corp. The set-top box and broadcast TV markets reach almost 97 percent of the population, with nearly 67 percent of all Americans having access to the set-top box. By migrating broadcasters to ATVEF, Intel gains a bigger audience for its technology.
"Sometimes, it's better to have your intellectual property out there in pieces rather than whole," SRI Consulting's David Gold said.
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