Close on the US Federal Communications Commission’s decision to permit broadcasters to deliver Internet and television content in the same signal, computer and entertainment companies are lining up their strategies for mixing the media. Microsoft Corp has joined with broadcaster NBC to launch a $500m television and Internet service and, separately, Compaq Computer Corp is to build computers that handle the two media forms simultaneously, care of Intel Corp. Compaq said it is building personal computers that implement Intel’s new Pentium Intercast technology, which enables users simultaneously to watch television and to receive broadcast pages from the World Wide Web. CompUSA Inc is joining the party by saying it would carry the things, starting in Atlanta in the middle of the month for the Olympics. Another participant in the effort is General Electric Co Inc’s NBC, the Olympic broadcaster. The Microsoft-NBC service, dubbed MSNBC, will reach 22m of the 70m US cable households, all of which already get Cable News Network, said to be a rival to the new broadcast venture. Few analysts doubt that MSNBC will last the three to five years it needs to become profitable – with Microsoft’s deep pockets and NBC’s corporate parent General Electric, there is clearly no shortage of money to make the thing work. The FCC decided earlier last week to permit broadcasters to deliver Internet and television content in the same signal. Intel’s Intercast uses a normally unused portion of the television signal – blanking lines, presumably – to deliver information to personal computers such as Gateway 2000 Inc’s Destination large-screen home computer with built-in television.
