TCI Will Launch DCT-5000 Boxes Without Full Suite of Services
By LESLIE ELLIS
Four months have elapsed since TCI promised additional foliage in its "walled garden" of interactive services, which started in March with a nod to BankAmerica Corp. and Intuit Inc.
Now, Tele-Communications Inc. is thinking that it will launch the first advanced-digital set-tops -- namely, General Instrument Corp.'s DCT-5000 line -- without a full suite of interactive services, opting instead to get the hardware in place while the content deals catch up.
"We've unhooked the software side and the hardware side ... the goal is to start deploying [advanced-digital set-top] hardware at the earliest possible date, and that may well be before the initial suite of software is ready," said David Beddow, senior vice president of TCI's National Digital Television Center.
GI is expected to tell financial analysts this week that it will begin volume shipments of the new DCT-5000 box by next June.
Content arrangements notwithstanding, TCI's work to combine several software pieces is progressing well technically, said Adam Grosser, vice president of product development for @Home Network. These include Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE operating system, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s PersonalJava middleware, an as-yet-undecided navigator and an e-mail client from @Home.
Five months ago, TCI selected @Home to develop the e-mail client and to assist the MSO in integrating the various software elements for its interactive-TV play.
Grosser said executives from all sides -- Microsoft, Sun, GI and TCI -- meet weekly, adding @Home has erected an entire wing to house the nearly 30 people who are now working on @Home's TV-content play.
He said the built-in animosity between Microsoft and Sun -- which recently caused TCI chairman and CEO John Malone to describe the integration as an exercise in "mating porcupines" -- is starting to resolve itself, even though Sun is suing Microsoft other over Java-deployment issues.
TCI executives noted early frustrations with Microsoft and Sun because each wanted the other to produce working software before proceeding.
"With every project where there are multiple vendors, there's always some period of 'schedule chicken' in the beginning," Grosser said. "But as the project gets more tangible, it becomes a self-correcting issue."
Beddow's interactive status report showed final details about:
How standards-based cable modems are integrated into advanced-digital boxes;
The adoption of Sony Corp.'s version of "fire wire" as an interim play until industry standards are completed;
An initial distribution of application program interfaces; and
The development of a hardware reference platform for various players to use until the DCT-5000 set-tops are ready.
He said TCI still needs to resolve what TV customers will first see when they want to go interactive.
"[The navigation] piece is under intense scrutiny right now," Beddow said.
That's because there are "obvious marketing and corporate decisions" to be made about that first viewer interface, in terms of what viewers first see and how to maintain a consistent look and feel, he said.
"There's a whole bunch of research and debate about that right now, involving internal people and @Home and other companies," Beddow added, declining to name those entities.
One of those other companies, sources close to the matter said, is Los Angeles-based BoxTop Inc., a developer of Internet content for Hollywood companies, which is working to develop a suitable navigator for TCI.
BoxTop officials were not available for comment at press time.
Beddow did confirm the possibility of other banks, such as Citibank and other regional financial institutions, entering the "walled garden" that TCI's interactive-services group is developing.
While Beddow acknowledged that his portion of TCI's interactive play centers mostly on the technical platform, he did not shut out the possibility of other banks joining in. BankAmerica and Intuit are estimated to be helping TCI to shave between $35 and $50 from the MSO's per-set-top costs, through a subsidy arrangement.
He described TCI's arrangement with BankAmerica and Intuit as "a pretty thorough memo of understanding," but he wouldn't go so far as to call it exclusive.
And there are others. In February, TCI was close to an arrangement with Internet bookseller Amazon.com, and Malone at the time made frequent reference to some sort of travel vendor. Beddow declined to discuss specifics last week, except to say, "There are certainly several others in the process of negotiation."
But when the DCT-5000s start rolling into TCI's subscriber homes next summer, Beddow predicted that limited interactivity will follow via electronic software downloads when content becomes available.
He said TCI is already well-entrenched in the software-download process as a way of maintaining, changing and updating the GI DCT-1000s and DCT-1200s that are already installed in its systems.
"We do it now about once each month," he added.
On the overall interactive front, Beddow said APIs will likely be issued this fall, which will help interactive-content producers to write for the set-tops that TCI buys.
"I'd say that the final applications development gets into full swing more in the December-January time frame," he said.
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