San Francisco — The void between the television and the telephone are vanishing as Comcast, the largest US cable operator, has partnered with Skype, the internet telephony service, to bring its video chat service into millions of living rooms across America, the companies announced Monday.
The strategic alliance, announced on the eve of The Cable Show here, the TV industry’s largest annual meeting, marks the most ambitious attempt to bring high-definition video calling off the desktop computer and on to set-top boxes.
The companies revealed that Comcast will be offering the Skype service via the TV to its broadband subscribers. Comcast will conduct an experiment of the Skype service this year and make it widely available to its customers sometime next year.
The companies said the Skype-on-TV feature, which is being announced at the Cable Show on Monday, will make it effortless for consumers to take advantage of high-quality video conferencing with friends and family through their HDTV sets and Comcast broadband connection.
“We can bring video calling into the heart of the home, empowering people to share life’s experiences both big and small,” said Tony Bates, chief executive of Skype. The collaboration also opens the door for a more social TV viewing experience, as customers will be able to chat with other Skype users while watching movies and programs.
“TV has evolved into a social experience,” said Neil Smit, president of Comcast Cable. “Comcast and Skype will be delivering a product that personalizes the TV experience more eventful, and brings friends and family together through the biggest screen in their homes.”
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However, what is known so far about the new service is that it will empower Comcast customers to make and receive Skype video calls from their televisions with any other Skype user, whether those Skype friends are connected through PCs, mobile phones or tablets or connected TVs.
Interestingly, the service will be dispensed via an adapter box that is connected to the customer’s HDTV set. Comcast will also provide customers with a high-quality video camera and specially designed remote control that will allow customers to type messages via Skype’s instant-messaging service, as well as control their TVs. Customers will not be required to have a Comcast cable television subscription to use the service.
For Comcast, the deal is a way to stay current with viewers’ behavior as they use their TV sets for much more than passive TV watching. Just last week, Comcast announced it also plans to offer a home security service through its broadband network. Comcast said it expects to start trials of the Skype service in the next few months. And the service will be available more widely later this year.
As for Skype, the deal casts a niche in the millions of homes that are served by Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider. Skype and Microsoft, which said last month it had agreed to acquire Skype, are said to be interested in further expanding Skype’s presence in homes.
“By blending-in Comcast’s broad living room approach with Skype’s innovative communications applications and worldwide community of users, we can bring video calling into the heart of the home, allowing people to share life’s experiences both big and small,” Bates, said in a statement.
Moreover, the companies are still figuring out all the details of the service, and they are expected to begin testing it in the next few months. The Cable Show is an annual conference and trade show, where cable operators from around the country gather. It is sponsored by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the industry’s lobby group.