@Home's Web-TV Play
cableworld.com
by Alan Breznick
Digital cable systems to test service in the spring
Plunging into the Internet/interactive TV market six months later than expected, Excite@Home Corp. will demonstrate its high-speed version of WebTV at the Western Show, and unveil two new MSO distributors for the service.
@HomeTV will compete against the existing Internet/interactive TV offerings of Microsoft Corp.'s WebTV, U S West Inc.'s WebVision, WorldGate Communications Inc. and Source Media Inc.'s Interactive Channel. It'll also vie for customers with America Online Inc.'s long-awaited AOL TV service and a proposed Web-over-TV service by Road Runner.
Excite@Home, which just reached 1 million subscribers for its high-speed online service over broadband cable lines, said it intends to start testing its fast, Web-over-TV service on digital cable systems in the spring. It then aims to launch @HomeTV commercially in at least one market next summer and expand to a number of digital cable systems next fall.
"We expect several MSOs to move into the market in the third or fourth quarter," said Kent Libbey, director-advanced TV products for Excite@Home. Although it's not yet clear which of the company's 24 cable partners will do so, it seems likely that lead MSO owners AT&T Corp., Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. will all introduce the service in their digital markets by late next year.
Designed to run on such cable set-tops as General Instrument Corp.'s DCT-5000 boxes, @HomeTV will offer a panoply of Internet/interactive TV features, including high-speed Web access, a Web browser, TV e-mail, enhanced TV programming, an advanced electronic programming guide, electronic chat sessions and personalized news and entertainment content. It'll offer additional online content supplied by Excite.
Excite@Home executives expect the full service to cost digital cable subscribers an extra $5 to $15 a month, depending upon the MSO. Current @Home PC customers may receive a discount. Some of the more elementary services, such as e-mail and selected Web pages, will likely be offered free, especially on lower-level digital set-tops. |
