New York -- Improved customer experience and thematic
bundles will be at the core of the broadband-delivered TV service that Intel
Media plans to launch later this year.
Eric Free, vice president and general manager of content and
services at Intel Media, said that while the company is open to conversations
with traditional distributors, "the plan is to go it alone."
Free—speaking during the opening keynote address at the Next
TV Summit, sponsored by Multichannel News and B&C, here on
March 21—said Intel Media, a division of the chip giant, is currently engaged
in a closed trial within employee homes in three West Coast markets. The
over-the-top service, which will be delivered via an Intel-powered set-top box,
is expected to launch later this year.
He said the "cord-cutting, cord-shaving and cord-nevering"—(if
that's a word, he said)—"are real and trending." He said they pose a real risk
of moving out of the pay TV universe.
