Huggers, who had originally pitched the idea, developed a business plan, and soon set up his group in offices with the flashy look of a media startup on the chipmaker’s Santa Clara, California, campus. Otellini entrusted the project to Huggers, a veteran TV executive who all but boasted that he knew nothing about chips. The often-clunky hardware and software provided by cable companies, and the highly controlled structure of cable packages, seemed to beg for a better solution. ![]() Its traditional strengths are in chip design and manufacturing, and it has little experience selling consumer products, much less television programming.īut Paul Otellini, Intel’s CEO from 2005 until May of this year, saw an opportunity for Intel to diversify into a new consumer business, one centered on a high-tech set-top box and a slick user interface. ![]() Intel, a storied semiconductor company that has struggled to manage the transition from traditional personal computers to mobile devices, was always an unlikely player in the digital television wars. Yet thus far only Netflix Inc has proven to be a major disruption to the lucrative relationship between pay TV operators and the entertainment companies that provide them with content. Technology heavyweights including Apple Inc, Inc Google Inc Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp all have similar ambitions. Intel’s retreat is a disappointment not only to former British Broadcasting Corp executive Erik Huggers, who led the project, but also to others in Silicon Valley who saw it as part of a wave of next-generation digital television products that might help break open a market tightly controlled by a handful of cable companies and entertainment conglomerates. Sources close to the project confirmed media reports that Intel Corp is looking to sell the TV technology, called OnCue, with Verizon Communications Inc emerging as the most likely buyer. The project faced daunting challenges from the start, and Intel’s new CEO, Brian Krzanich, ultimately decided the company could not afford the distraction and expense, sources familiar with the decision told Reuters.Īt his first annual investor day on Thursday, Krzanich is expected to discuss the growing use of chips in everyday devices, plans to breath new life into PCs, and Intel’s growing contract manufacturing business - but not Intel TV. The drastic change in plans for the retail spaces follows the company’s abrupt abandonment of a grand plan to become an entertainment hub in living rooms around the world - a retreat that has been rumored but not yet acknowledged by the company. Instead, they will see ultra thin laptops and new tablets from a variety of vendors that Intel hopes will help boost its massive but flagging computer chip business. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/Filesīut when customers walk into those stores this holiday season, they will not find any set-top TV boxes or programming services for sale. Gopi Sirineni (C) of San Jose, California takes a video of the Intel booth during the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, in this Janufile photo.
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