Ask yourself why @Home is being considered for basic.
"The company plans to market HyperTV in cooperation with one or more strategic partners and through licensing agreements. Potential partners and licensees include broadcast and cable networks, syndicated programmers, operators of Internet portals, the advertising community, and network providers."
What Do You Get When You Cross The Internet With Television? The Future
6.55 a.m. ET (1155 GMT) March 2, 1999 By Gary Gentile
NEW YORK — In the world according to Tom Jermoluk, the Internet isn't a destination, but a state of being, as phones, pagers, televisions and computers conspire to keep you connected 24 hours a day.
It's what Jermoluk, president and CEO of @Home Network, calls "All bands, all devices, all the time."
Jermoluk delivered the keynote address Monday at the annual Jupiter Consumer Online Forum in New York, a three-day gathering to explore how businesses can actually make money once the Internet matures from a one- or two-hour a week experience on a slow computer connection to a constant presence on cable modems — something called "persistent connectivity."
Jermoluk's company provides "broadband" access to the Internet, meaning a lightning-fast connection made possible mainly by high-speed modems attached to cable television wires and cable boxes. These connections allow much more information to pass back and forth between user and Web site while also allowing television signals to be simultaneously transmitted and received.
The company recently announced its multi-billion dollar purchase of Excite, an Internet portal company that pioneered a sophisticated technology allowing advertisers to fine-tune campaigns to individual Web users. Companies like @Home, in alliances with cable television companies such as TCI Cable, are aiming to marry the TV to the Internet in a way that will transform the viewing and buying habits of couch potatoes everywhere.
Jermoluk made it clear his goal is not simply to speed-up Internet access but literally to change forever the way future generations experience television. With the kind of technology @Home and other companies are implementing right now, it is conceivable that there will one day be as many different television experiences as there are televisions.
Here's an example: Say you recently bought a pair of hiking boots from the LL Bean Company Web site. Now you sit down on a relaxing Saturday afternoon to watch a program about Cheetahs broadcast on the Discovery Channel. A company like @Home will be able to connect the two experiences and deliver custom advertising to your TV set, so while your next-door neighbor might watch a Budweiser ad during the his commercial break, you're watching — guess what — an ad for LL Bean.
And that's not all. If you're watching an ad for Prell, you can touch a button on your remote to obtain hair-styling tips and other suggestions for using the product, right on your TV screen. Punch another button and you've bought a bottle, charged to your pre-entered credit card.
"Once a Web site becomes just a virtual channel on a TV, you can have a personalized stock portfolio, e-mail, a 401(k) channel, home shopping — all programmed by you," Jermoluk said.
This futuristic picture is far from inconceivable. Right now, cable companies are finding that viewers are four times more likely to order a pay-per-view movie if all they have to do is hit a button on their remote control rather than dial a phone number to place the order.
The new @Home-Excite combination isn't the only company taking broadband to the next level. Time Warner Cable's Road Runner initiative is also bringing high-speed Internet access to cable boxes across the country. News America Digital Publishing, the Internet arm of News Corporation, recently signed an agreement to provide original content from Fox News Online and Fox Sports to Time Warner cable customers over the new broadband lines. NADP also publishes Fox Market Wire.
The Jupiter conference continues this week with major addresses from Barry Diller, the head of the USA Network, which recently purchased Lycos, another Internet portal site. Jerry Yang, co-creator of the popular Yahoo! Internet site, will also offer his views on the future of the Internet. Check back with Fox Market Wire often for full coverage over the next few days. |
