Advanced Television

Huggers’ $2bn cheque book

June 11, 2013

By Chris Forrester

huggersErik Huggers, who now runs Intel’s Media division, is reportedly offering a 50-75 per cent premium over average ‘Internet TV’ rates.  Huggers, according to trade mag Variety, has already concluded MOU agreements with the likes of News Corp, CBS and Viacom for a planned broadband OTT service.

Huggers ran the BBC’s future media and technology division and was instrumental in launching the BBC’s iPlayer service. He left the BBC in January 2011. An Intel spokesperson told Variety that Intel is “broadly engaged with content partners and believe we’ll have a strong offering in this area when we launch later this year.”

Intel is now getting all its ducks in a row, which means talking to more potential content providers and then concluding the outline agreements. A US launch is seen as taking place this coming autumn. However, there’s more work to do. Intel might have mastered its silicon chips but now has to develop a set-top box and the word is that it is planning an integrated camera for ‘facial recognition’ and enabling targeted advertising.

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