04/22/96 YOUR TV, A STEPPING STONE TO THE WEB

YOUR TV, A STEPPING STONE TO THE WEB

CHANNEL-SURFING AND WEB-SURFING ARE STARTING TO meet. Last year, Intel Corp. introduced Intercast, a scheme by which Web pages are sent via an empty frequency slot of a standard video signal to an Intel-built TV-tuner card in a PC. Both the video and the list of Web pages are displayed on the screen, so couch potatoes can click on pages to get more information related to the TV program. The advantage of such a linkup? An educational channel could quiz students online, for instance, or a sports channel might provide statistics and bios of key players in a particular game.
A new scheme called HyperTV takes a different approach. Devised by EarthWeb, a Web programming shop in New York, HyperTV software would deliver Web addresses synchronized with the TV program into a window on the PC's Web browser. But instead of delivering them with the video signal, they would arrive through a standard Internet connection. Be-cause it doesn't require a TV tuner card, HyperTV could be cheaper--although the price would be up to the video programmer. It also would be easier to ``hyperlink'' to other Web sites than with Intercast. EarthWeb is working with ACTV Inc. to commercialize the technology.
EDITED BY ROBERT D. HOF By John W. Verity