Dutch TV-technology positions Intel to enable broadcasters to deliver next-generation TV services

First CE products available to consumers before XMas

By John Goedegebuure

Last week, British interactive service provider, Miniweb, announced a collaboration with Dutch based Metrological Media Innovations and Intel. Miniweb, founded in 2007 following an MBO from media giant BskyB, provides converged broadcast and broadband entertainment services which enable interactivity and targeted, web-style advertising on the TV.

The "open standards" media services platform provides broadcasters, content owners, advertisers and network operators, with tools, to easily and cost-effectively deliver new services that monetize viewer interaction with linear and internet delivered media. Metrological, member of the Intel Consumer Electronics Network, provides middleware and reference designs based on the Intel Media Processor CE 3100.

The co-operation between Miniweb, Metrological and Intel has resulted in the integration of Metrological's Mediaconnect OS and the Miniweb services platform, which will be available to a range of Intel-based consumer electronics (CE) devices, including satellite, cable and terrestrial hybrid set-top boxes as well as integrated Digital TV sets.
The initial press reactions are more than encouraging. William Cooper of Informitv stated, "Miniweb showed a reference set-top box implementation designed by Metrological, incorporating a twin-tuner digital video recorder in a compact case, providing a high-definition output and a slick user interface that is streets ahead of traditional interactive television services".

At first glance this looks to be nothing new, considering that there are hundreds of TV-internet convergence initiatives ongoing worldwide. Many of these new TV-services projects, however, have meanwhile been cancelled. Often this is mainly due to the lack of support from marketers and advertisers, who require a sizeable installed base, to justify the roll-out of large scale marketing- and advertising campaigns.
It is evident that the Metrological-Miniweb collaboration can count on strong support from Intel. Eric Kim, General Manager of the Intel Digital Home Group, commented, "We look forward to working with Metrological and Miniweb to provide consumers and operators with what they need and the business models to support a next generation TV experience".

Intel's global marketing approach clearly supports Metrological and its partners, in establishing a massive "Mediaconnect TV Network", that enables brands to run advertising and marketing-campaigns on a regional, national and global level. Obviously the same accounts for content- and rights holders, who in addition to regular linear broadcasts, can now also effectively distribute and monetize their respective Video On Demand services to a global audience.

It is no secret that Intel, over the last couple of years, has been trying to establish a strong foothold in the global TV market. The Intel CE 3100 processor, as implemented by Metrological, appears to finally enable Intel in realizing its plans to integrate Intel technology into household TV sets. It will therefore be interesting to see what the market acceptance will be of next-generation TV services such as those of Miniweb.

At the IBC Show in Amsterdam (September 11-15) Metrological's Mediaconnect TV will be presented by Miniweb.
The first CE3100 consumer electronic products will be available to consumers by the end of November. Conceptronic, will launch the first of its Yuixx media players in Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands and the UK.

Is it realistic to expect a warm "market welcome" in the current economic climate? Well, history teaches us that previous economic recessions were often the breeding ground and starting point of new innovative products and trends. During the recession of 1980-1982, we saw the launch of (now) household brands CNN, MTV and Disney Channel. And was it not in 1982 when IBM introduced the Personal Computer, to be followed shortly thereafter by Compaq.

"There's more to this analogy. In the early 1980s, "IBM clones" from Compaq, Zenith, AST Research and Dell dramatically widened choices for people looking at Personal Computers, and the market exploded," said Gerry Kaufhold with In-Stat. "Today, everything on the Internet runs on the Intel Architecture (IA) instruction set. If Intel's partnership with Metrological cost-effectively brings the Intel Architecture to TV sets and TV peripherals, anything that can be done on the World Wide Web could come to your TV. Savvy content producers will begin creating TV shows that include "hooks" for online widgets and key words to help Content Discovery Engines find their programs. We'll also see broadcasters inserting "triggers" that can automatically start new, innovative advertising avails using graphic overlays that don't interrupt the flow of a TV program or movie. It's going to be a fun end of the decade to watch."

Intel CE3100 based CE devices very much enable a personalized TV experience, and as such we might see the pendulum swinging from provider centric offerings, as we know them to more consumer centric offerings. Thus entering a totally new TV era and definitely changing the global media landscape, as we know it.

for further information
please contact John Goedegebuure
E jgoedege@harris.com ; M +31( 0)647 266862

In-Stat reports that provide in-depth research on bringing Internet applications to TVs:
http://www.instat.com/catalog/mmcatalogue.asp?id=289#IN0904016MBI
CDNs and Data Centers to Usurp Video-on-Demand
http://www.instat.com/catalog/mmcatalogue.asp?id=212#IN0904404CM
Web-To-TV Video Changes Everything

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