Rivals Vie for Control of Cable TV Set-Tops
Friday December 1 5:09 PM ET
By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The gloves are coming off in the arena for interactive
television among rivals offering software for a new generation of digital cable set-top
boxes rolling out across the world.
At stake is a share of a market projected to grow to $25 billion in the next five years,
with revenues generated through home shopping, providing advertisers with customer
information, and offering other interactive services that so-called iTV aims to bring into
homes.
Getting to the viewer first is key for all these players because they agree that the first
companies to get inside the home will stay there because of the reluctance of consumers
to switch services. So the competition has begun, and for these players, the heat is on --
because only one or two winners will be left standing when the battle ends.
Operating system providers like Liberate Technologies Inc. (NasdaqNM:LBRT - news)
and OpenTV Corp. (NasdaqNM:OPTV - news) are already deploying systems while
talking down competition from their Goliath-sized rival Microsoft Corp.
(NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), whose roll-out has been slower.
At the same time, Scientific-Atlanta Inc.'s (NYSE:SFA - news) 80-percent-owned
PowerTV boasts that its software resides in set-top boxes of more U.S. homes than all
the others combined.
In a different league for makers of program-guide and other consumer-oriented
applications, Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:GMST - news) TV
Guide Interactive touts its strong brand recognition as a way to attract consumer
eyeballs. AOLTV, a unit of America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), wants to
leverage its 25 million online users to build a presence on the airwaves.
It all adds up to enough high-sticking and hard-checking among the players that even the
toughest pro hockey star might want to watch this one from the bench.
``Well, it's definitely heated,'' said Ed Graczyk, marketing director at Microsoft TV, the
unit responsible for putting a Microsoft operating system inside cable set-top boxes.
After beginning to roll-out digital set-top boxes in the latter half of 2000, cable operators
have now installed several million into U.S. homes -- Forrester Research forecasts 65
million U.S. homes with interactive video in 2005.
A Slow Roll-Out Of Set-Top Boxes
Graczyk admits at this time last year, Microsoft expected to be farther ahead than it is
now, but he added that this month satellite TV provider DirecTV will start deploying iTV
services called ``Ultimate TV'' using Microsoft software.
He also said several overseas partners, including Portuguese operator TV Cabo and
Canada's Rogers Communications, are just now announcing definitive launch schedules.
``We're actually right at the very beginning,'' he said.
Liberate Chief Executive Mitch Kertzman considers Microsoft a top competitor. In
September, Liberate said its software was in about 300,000 U.S. homes, and Kertzman
told Reuters that when the company announces quarterly earnings in December, it
expects to add ``hundreds of thousands'' of homes to that total.
OpenTV, has enjoyed early success in the United Kingdom, where it launched systems in
October 1999, and it now boasts a global deployment into 11 million homes. This week,
it unveiled its first U.S. deal with cable operator USA Media Group.
PowerTV says its systems are in 5 million U.S. homes right now, but a large percentage
of those come from its affiliation with set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta. Still, CEO
Steve Necessary rightly says PowerTV ``is the most broadly deployed solution for
two-way, interactive cable'' in the United States.
While the battle rages on, operating system providers seem to agree on one point: cable
operators will be deploying more than one system until they determine exactly what
consumers want. Most cable operators, too, will likely tailor systems to match viewer
habits and use their own brand names. So, viewers may never see the names of the
software makers on TV screens.
MEET iTV
When viewers switch on a TV, they will get a main menu of services including
video-on-demand (the ability to watch a movie at any given time), home shopping
(labeled t-commerce as opposed to e-commerce), or just plain old TV.
Using a remote control, viewers will scroll through the menu. Clicking on ``TV'' might
give a viewer a simple broadcast program, but viewers with digital cable could watch the
show from different perspectives. A hockey game, for instance, could be watched from
the stands, rinkside or behind the net.
In another example, viewers might flip to TV Guide's program schedule where they
would see shows and times on one portion of the screen, video ads for anything from
movies to cars in another section, and banner ads in a third grouping.
By using a remote control to click on an ad, viewers could see more information, and
eventually ``click through'' a series of screens to order a product. TV Guide will share in
sales generated for each ad clicked or product sold.
Gemstar-TV Guide President Joe Kiener says his system is expected to grow from 5
million viewers to 20 million in 2001. Viewers are clicking on ads about four times an
hour and go about three clicks deep for price and order information on average, he said.
TV Guide Interactive now comes pre-installed, for free, on some TVs, and next year
services such as two-way paging will be added.
AOLTV offers instant messaging, e-mail and a TV program guide. Consumers can buy
hardware for $249 in stores and subscribe for a monthly fee. Down the road, too,
AOLTV will offer iTV services directly on set-top boxes in an effort to become the first
stop on TV sets for channel surfers. |
