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Follow UsJana Sanchez
AMSTERDAM: Microsoft Corp and Thomson Multimedia are poised to launch a
product for interactive television that will offer enhanced TV content and Web
access over analogue phone lines, industry sources said on Monday.
The move comes despite Microsoft attempting to position itself as a leader in
the digital interactive TV market with the rollout of its Microsoft TV platform.
The set-top box is the culmination of two years' cooperation between the two
technology giants and was developed by TAK, a Thomson subsidiary in which
Microsoft holds a 30 per cent stake. The box, to be unveiled at a press
conference in Paris next Tuesday, is designed to offer "services in an
analogue world," said one source, explaining that the majority of
television sets today are analogue, not digital.
"It's just the French version of (US-based) WebTV. It brings nothing to
the world of digital TV and e-commerce," said Gartner Group analyst Paul
O'Donovan.
"Digital TV has better revenue potential than enhanced TV," he
said.
Analysts said Microsoft and Thomson appear to be planning their product as a
stopgap measure until cable, satellite and Internet service providers are more
widely deploying digital TV.
Most European countries are rapidly moving to offer digital terrestrial
services, which will make enhanced TV obsolete, O'Donovan said.
Both Thomson and Microsoft declined to comment.
US-based WebTV was launched four years ago in the United States and has not
acquired a mass audience despite Microsoft subsequently acquiring the Silicon
Valley start-up.
WebTV allows viewers to access the Web and email while watching television.
But unlike digital TV, if a customer wants to order a product seen advertised on
a program, they still need to make a telephone call.
Room for an analogue solution
Joseph Haddad, chief executive of Netgem, a France-based digital set-top box
maker, said there was room for an analogue solution.
"The transition from analogue to digital will take some time, it could
be three or four years," Haddad said, adding that he believed TAK's
old-technology offering would help more consumers get used to interactive TV.
"We consider this as excellent news in terms of educating both consumers
and Internet service providers," he said.
Financial analyst Patrick Yau at Credit Suisse First Boston said there were
still dozens of millions of analogue television sets in Europe which offer a
business opportunity as long as they have not been replaced or enhanced by
digital TVs and set-top boxes.
"There's a short window of opportunity," he said.
Of the 197 million television sets in Europe, excluding Russia and the Baltic
states, Gartner estimates that only 13 million are digital sets.
Thomson will manufacture the new set-top boxes, TAK will offer Internet
access and services, and Microsoft has built the software. Microsoft has been
active on many fronts in interactive television. It has acquired stakes in cable
TV companies across the globe.
It is also developing an operating system for digital TV sets and set-top
boxes called Microsoft TV platform, as well as making interactive TV
applications.
But the US company has come under fire for delays in delivering its software,
which in turn have led to delays in the deployment of lucrative interactive
services by major cable companies including Amsterdam-based United Pan Europe
Communications (UPC) and AT&T in the US.
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.