Intel is close to announcing its plan to revolutionize TV, though it's not planning a CES announcement, Janko Roettgers at GigaOm reports.
Roettgers anticipates Intel announcing something in February. And what is that something? Plans for a new TV platform.
Intel has a small stealth team working on a TV service led by Erik Huggers, who led the BBC's iPlayer. Huggers is joined by a team of people that have worked at Apple, Jawbone, and elsewhere outside of Intel. The group is called "Intel Media," and there's talk that Intel could spin it out has its own company.
Intel is planning to release a set top box. It also wants to be able to deliver TV content to tablets and smartphones. To do all of this it needs to hammer out deals with cable and content companies.
In a separate report at Forbes, Kelly Clay says Intel is going to offer the option to unbundle channels so people can only order what they want. Roettgers is skeptical Intel can actually pull this off.
Roettgers says Intel has invested $100 million in this project, and it could end up investing a lot more. Intel is trying to find its next growth engine and it seems to think TV could be it.
It has a design team in London working on building a new user interface.
All of this is set against the backdrop of Apple reportedly trying to do something with TV. Intel, like many others, wants to get something to market before Apple.
Intel thinks the current version of Apple TV is busted. It thinks the idea that people have to choose apps or video on demand in the Apple TV is flawed. They want content to be coming at users, like normal TV. Roettgers says the feeling inside Intel is that it should be more like Pandora, and less like Spotify.
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