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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ViperChick Secret Agent 006.9 who wrote (28867)	1/28/1998 3:12:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

HDTV......................................................... ijumpstart.com HDTV Gives Programmers Economic Incentive to Add Interactivity: Microsoft and Intel Offer Basic Authoring Guidelines <Picture><Picture><Picture> Traditional video programmers looking to offset HDTV equipment costs may have an economic incentive to add Web data and multimedia enhancements to their content. And Microsoft Corp. [MSFT] and Intel Corp. [INTC] are putting together authoring guidelines to help push companies in that direction. From Microsoft's point-of-view, interactivity is a necessity, because it will give programmers new advertising revenue streams-something they'll need to pay for the hardware expenses of moving from analog to digital. "The big question is, when you go to digital TV formats, how are you going to pay for the equipment?" said Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's group product manager for Digital TV. "You can't pay for it with traditional advertising, you need new streams of revenue." Leveraging their heritage in WebTV and Intercast, the two most powerful companies in the PC industry are providing the building blocks video content providers require to enhance their content with the text and multimedia data types used on the Web. The PC heavyweights are trying to convince TV-centric programmers that HDTV's bandwidth increase and the millions of Web-enabled digital set-top boxes shipping later this year are compelling reasons to augment programming with the kinds of interactivity traditionally found on CD-ROMs and the Internet. The stringent demands of individual transmission technologies-ranging from 28.8 Kbps modems to cable modems, to satellite-and the added costs of developing programming tailored for each type is another reason content providers have been hesitant to dive into this second generation of interactive television. And with good reason. Try as they might, satellite providers DirecTV Inc.'s [GMH] and EchoStar Communications Corp. [DISH] are lacking the requisite tools and expertise to help them. "They only want to ceate content once, or at worse twice," said Doug McGary, manager of EchoStar's broadcast data group. "I don't have any real answers for them." Intercast Meets WebTV Microsoft is in discussions with Intel and Network Computer Inc. (NCI) about taking the best aspects of WebTV's interface, Intercast technology and NCI's software and combining them in a set of specifications called the common content framework (CCF). Two officials who asked not to be identified confirmed the integration of the companies technologies. Evidence of the relationship, particularly between Microsoft and Intel, became evident earlier this month at CES. Demonstrations of Windows 98 beta and Intercast 2.0 included common elements and the look and feel of the WebTV interface. The unified front, with the potential addition of other companies, is expected to put the finishing touches on the CCF in the next few months and begin preaching the enhanced TV gospel to producers. Intel executives, while not acknowledging participation in the CCF, said the company is working on a set of guidelines to help video programmers author content for display on a variety of digital receivers. "Trying to find the right balance between visuals and text is different for every piece of programming," said Mariah Scott, marketing manager for Intel's broadcast group. "We're not trying to dictate how it's going to look." Last week Microsoft posted a set of recommendations on the company's Web site at microsoft.com. Guggenheimer said the information needs a bit of tweaking because it was designed for display on a TV (with WebTV) as well as a PC. His acknowledgement is an indication of how far the company, and the industry as a whole, has to come in streamlining the content-authoring process. Content Alternatives Microsoft divides programming that combines video and Web data into three categories: Crossover links, low-bandwidth interactivity (analog) and high-bandwidth interactivity (digital). Crossover links enable producers to integrate a URL in the closed-caption lines of the vertical blanking interval (VBI). Viewers see a graphic "I" to indicate Web content is available and click to retrieve it. These links can be displayed on WebTV and the upcoming Windows 98. Intercast is an example of low-bandwidth interactivity. It allows a producer to send Web data on the VBI to complement video programming. Offering more interactivity than crossover links, Intercast is limited by the amount of bandwidth available on he VBI, which is roughly the equivalent of ISDN speed. High-bandwidth interactivity will be available only when HDTV broadcasts begin in November. Producers will be able to offer multiple video streams or video and Web data, depending on how they choose to allocate spectrum. Guggenheimer acknowledged that getting to digital interactivity will be a big challenge because most video programmers aren't even comfortable with crossover links. "Most of these producers are not programmers," he said. "Having someone do HTML coding for them is a step up. They have to understand the business value of doing this."