IP: Microsoft cable-TV foray is costly

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Some comments. MS had/has little if any alternatives. DSL was and is a
slowly deploying alternative to cable in the USA. Right now cable has a big
lock on easily supplied bandwidth (note I did not say broadband yet). Note
25 or so % of cable is supplied by AOL/TW who by the way have no love for MS
(remember Netscape) . The likelihood that AOLTW would give MS adequate
access to their cable is small unless MS has a tit-for-tat. That is another
cable system. 

Dave
------ Forwarded Message
From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>

Microsoft cable-TV foray is costly

By Rebecca Buckman
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

REDMOND, Wash., June 14 - The cable-television executives had a
dream, and Bill Gates seemed ready to make it come true.

IT WAS A SUNNY AFTERNOON in May 1997, and a group of cable
chieftains had descended on Microsoft Corp.'s campus here to discuss
the future with Chairman Gates. The executives - heavy-hitters such
as Brian Roberts, then chief executive of Comcast Corp., and John
Malone, then CEO of Tele-Communications Inc. - dearly wanted to build
high-speed cable networks and pipe new types of entertainment and
Internet services into consumers' TV sets. But they needed cash and
technology to do it. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

Mr. Gates spun them an enticing vision. He said Microsoft
would help build digital-TV set-top boxes and software to deliver
potentially lucrative services such as Web shopping and interactive
sports. In Mr. Gates, the executives saw a savvy partner who could
provide the drive and the funds for such projects at a time when the
cost of upgrading cable networks was seen as potentially prohibitive.
At dinner, Comcast's Mr. Roberts joked, " 'Hey, Bill, you can solve
the problem,' " recalls Craig Mundie, a Microsoft official who
attended. " 'Why don't you buy 10% of the cable industry?' "

Mr. Gates began to do something close to that. The Redmond
meeting marked the start of an investment campaign in which Microsoft
would plow close to $10 billion into cable TV.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/766979.asp



------ End of Forwarded Message

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/