Michael Nadeau
Computers from Apple, Packard Bell, and other vendors that combine PC computing and TV reception are now available in the $1500 price range. But the ability to receive regular TV programming is just the beginning of the PC/TV connection. New services and products will deliver PC-specific TV content. Cable and phone companies are also testing content delivery to set-top boxes running operating systems like OS-9-based DAVID (Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder) from Microware (Des Moines, IA).
NBC Desktop Video (New York City) has launched three TV financial services. NBC Professional provides live coverage of events such as congressional hearings and news conferences gathered by NBC companies like CNBC, NBC NewsChannel, and PFN. PFN/FirstCall offers vide
o programming of analyst presentations, shareholder meetings, interviews, and brokerage conferences. NBC Desktop Video on Demand lets you call up recorded programming originally shown on other services.
Sold on a subscription basis, the programs target financial-service professionals. NBC Desktop Video and its partners developed a video network to deliver the services to corporate sites. Lenel Systems International created the custom software to produce and play the stories on a PC. The services are transmitted over MFS Datanet's ATM Fiber Network Service. Xing Technology provided the video-compression technology, and the GE Research and Development Center built the communications software. The services are expensive. For example, PFN/FirstCall costs $1750 a month for the first user plus another $250 per month for each of two to five additional users.
On the consumer side, Intel will introduce next year a card that will link your PC to a cable TV system. Cable companies that provide special serv
ices for the PC will play a big role in Intel's service that's code-named CableLink. Intel has signed agreements with major cable players like Comcast, Rogers, TCI, and Viacom. And Redgate Communications is working with multimedia developer Medior (San Mateo, CA) to create a home-shopping service called Esplanade.
Services based on CableLink should be widely available by this time next year, and they will vary with each cable company. Sean Doherty, president of Team Software (Houston, TX), which is developing software for CableLink, says the service will turn your neighborhood cable feed into a giant LAN. Typical services could include on-line interactive chats between a town's residents and its officials, on-line commerce with local businesses, electronic classified ads, and remote education. The service could also provide links to the Internet and on-line services like Prodigy and Delphi
Users who currently lack the ability to make a local telephone call to access an on-line service could pay
a fixed monthly fee to make the connection over CableLink. ``Cable TV was started to provide clear TV reception to remote areas,'' Doherty notes. ``CableLink could provide similar capability for computer users who don't want to pay long-distance charges to go on-line.''
Did You Know...
-- Cable TV is available to 89 percent of the U.S. public
-- 64 percent of U.S. households subscribe to cable TV
-- 48 percent of cable subscribers are ``very satisfied'' with news
programming
-- 32 percent of those without cable are ``very satisfied'' with news
programming
-- 12 percent of U.S. households have a modem-equipped PC
Source: The Role of Technology in American Life, Times-Mirror Center for the People & the Press
Illustration: Team Software is developing a friendly Windows interface for CableLink.
TV Services Add Value to Desktop PCs
