Intel Corp. and Yahoo Inc. unveiled an ambitious effort Wednesday to marry the TV with the Internet, a goal that has eluded technology and media companies for more than a decade.The pair outlined software tools, based on Yahoo technology, to help companies deliver Web content alongside TV programming. The software complements a new chip from Intel designed to enable interactive features on TVs, set-top boxes and other gadgets, though it can work with devices that use other chips.
Intel hopes to use new chip technology to bring Web content to TV programming.
The two companies plan for the service to be available early next year. But they face stiff competition, and the need to rally Internet, software and consumer-electronics companies behind their plan. Intel said it has received support from some big players, including cable giant Comcast Corp., Walt Disney Co.'s ABC unit and hardware makers Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc.
Instead of trying to call up entire Web pages on a TV, as many previous efforts have, Yahoo is exploiting the concept of simple Web-based chunks of software known as widgets that have become popular on PCs over the past few years. The Widget Channel, as Yahoo dubs its service, allows icons for Web offerings to scroll from side to side on a strip at the bottom of a TV screen, while traditional programming plays above.
With a click of the remote, that content expands into a larger view on the left side of the screen, where users might pull up a weather report, monitor bidding in an eBay Inc. auction or view a YouTube video. Such Web companies will have to be persuaded to adopt the format; one draw is the possibility of reaching a TV audience that could help generate greater advertising and e-commerce revenue, Intel and Yahoo executives said.
"All the previous efforts that have failed tried to take the PC model and force it on the Internet," said Eric Kim, an Intel senior vice president and general manager of its digital home group.
Some electronics companies already sell TVs that can connect to the Internet, noted Richard Doherty, an analyst at market research firm Envisioneering Group. Sony and Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, have been pushing online connections for game consoles connected to TVs; Microsoft also been promoting technology to link Internet-connected PCs with TVs. He added that users are increasingly watching TV content on their computers, and said that by the time Intel and Yahoo launch their offerings, "there will be other Web experiences on the PC that users are in love with."
Comcast plans to begin testing the Web technology in the first half of 2009, integrating it with its own set-top boxes and interactive programming guide. Tony Werner, Comcast's chief technology officer, predicted other cable companies will also adopt the technology.
Intel's Mr. Kim said consumers will be able to purchase devices in retail stores next year that connect to existing cable boxes and an Internet connection that allows access to the Web features even if the user's cable or satellite company hasn't explicitly supported the technology.
By: Don Clark
Wall Street Journal; August 21, 2008
