Microsoft Corp has pragmatically decided to adopt Intel Corp’s Intercast application for viewing interactive TV programs on PCs. Initially targeted at analog reception, Intercast enables digital devices equipped with a TV tuner card and an internet connection to display interactive programming. CNN, MTV, Discovery Channel and others already broadcast programming which enable viewers with WebTV or similar technologies to retrieve additional HTML- based information or services to their TV or PC by using the vertical blanking segments of analog signals to transmit digital information. Microsoft says Intercast, essentially a picture-in- picture display system, will live alongside the equivalent WebPIP function it also ships as part of WebTV for Windows. Content written to WebPIP will work in Intercast, Microsoft says. Currently few PCs are shipped with analog TV tuner cards but the two expect that the arrival of mainstream digital TV broadcasting later this year will provide a significant impetus to the trend to watching television on the desktop or any other digital device, including Windows CE applications. Digital TV tuner add- in cards are expected to ship next year. Still to be decided however is what protocol Intercast will use as its digital transport. With less than a million viewers equipped for to receive interactive programming the market is still embryonic. Oracle and other IT companies have already endorsed Intercast. Microsoft says technologies which compete with WebTV such as Worldgate Communications Inc or Wink are either not robust enough or do not use native internet protocols as their underlying transport. However we figure they’ll likely try and co-opt ventures which are big and internet based and have their own programs.
