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To: gcrieff who wrote (301)	9/2/1999 2:30:00 AM
From: NY Stew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6516

coving: Microsoft, Thomson Form TV Venture techweb.com (08/31/99, 10:34 a.m. ET) By Junko Yoshida, EE Times BERLIN -- Pushing to establish a critical beachhead for its Windows CE operating system in the mainstream television market, Microsoft has formed a joint venture with Thomson Multimedia to launch an interactive TV platform and associated services for broadcasters and TV set manufacturers. Microsoft holds 30 percent of the venture, which is called TAK; Thomson controls the remainder. The companies announced at the International Funkausstellung 1999 conference here in Berlin that the venture plans to roll a CE-based platform and services, initially in France and Germany, in the second quarter. In collaboration with broadcasters, TAK intends to offer such services as enhanced TV programming, e-mail, and Internet access, said Alain Maillard, executive vice president for technology and operations at TAK.Enhanced programming service will tap the vertical blanking interval (VBI). "TV is becoming a true interactive device," said Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of Thomson multimedia. "We believe we are at the beginning of a big, big revolution in our industry." TAK will provide broadcasters with special broadcast servers that synchronize TAK-developed interactive services with TV broadcast programming. Equipped with its own online servers for delivering HTML-based applications, the start-up will also operate as a dedicated services company. "We see TAK as an operator of a full interactive platform," Maillard said. An embedded TAK module inside the TV set will enable services. The module includes CE, a browser designed in cooperation with Microsoft's WebTV team, a 200-MHz processor, flash memory, RAM, and a modem, Maillard said. Thomson-Europe vice president Pierre Mureau said technology for TAK services will be included on all 16-by-9 (aspect ratio) televisions made for the European market and on all 4-by-3 sets of 28 or 29 inches. The move reflects Microsoft's long-standing ambition to build a more formidable presence in the consumer electronics market, as well as the desire by Thomson -- 7 percent of which is now owned by Microsoft -- to regain market share in its flagship TV market. Thomson is the only consumer electronics manufacturer, excluding makers of WebTV-based set-tops, to target CE-based TV sets. TAK's rollout of interactive service in Europe could also further the agenda of the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF), a cross-industry group led by Intel and Microsoft. TAK's platform will comply fully with the ATVEF specification for HTML-based enhanced TV programming, according to Maillard. A number of consumer executives who were asked about TAK's initial plan to offer HTML- and VBI-based enhanced TV programming on existing analog TVs called the venture's selection of CE overkill for the application. But Maillard said the well-defined APIs of the Microsoft OS lets TAK offer a path for future evolution, and all the software can be upgraded. The use of CE gives broadcasters a platform on which they can expand services in the future, he added. TAK-enabled applications designed for broadcasters include interactive ads, enhanced programming, interactive game shows, and e-commerce. A platform and services similar to the European offering will debut as eTV in the U.S. market in the second quarter. Services, however, will be offered by a collection of U.S. broadcasters rather than by TAK itself, according to Thomson. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------