Another step toward web-based TV, and undoing the cable bundle?

Verizon had already planned to use Intel’s OnCue Cloud TV platform, but this week it announced that it will buy all of Intel Media. The price wasn’t disclosed, but guesses range from $200 million to $500 million.

As CNET said, “The deal spotlights the growing importance of video content delivered over the Internet rather than by broadcast or cable-TV technology. Verizon plans to use the Intel Media technology to deliver video over both its FiOS fiber-optic home broadband service and its 4G wireless network service.”

Although Intel might have been able to develop a profitable TV service, Verizon has the greater reach. As Andrew Jay Schwartzman in The Daily Item said, “Verizon can do one big thing Intel can't, which is to offer video to its wireless customers, presumably allowing customers to stream video without it counting against their data cap.”

According to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, "Verizon already has extensive video content relationships, fixed and wireless delivery networks, and customer relationships in both the home and on mobile. This transaction provides us with the capabilities to build a powerful, capitally efficient engine for future growth and innovation."

Although cable has advantages in many areas, high-speed wireless – as well as fiber – continue to grow as well. Will OnCue be the big end run around the cable monopoly? Uncertain. But what is apparent is that both wired and wireless Internet TV are around the corner – and in some ways already here.

Verizon to buy Intel's TV business for undisclosed sum (CNET, Jan. 21, 2014)