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1999 Consumer Electronics Show READ ALL ABOUT IT! PAGE 1 DBS Companies Play Interactive One-upmanship DirecTv yesterday unveiled two new services it hopes will take a little focus off EchoStar’s attention-grabbing new WebStar product. The two companies are taking opposite approaches to giving customers more features in their DBS receivers. EchoStar is building push Internet and data content, Internet surfing, and digital storage technology all into one box, while DirecTv announced plans for several new boxes each offering one of those services. DirecTv announced a plan to deliver Wink Technology’s services free to all DirecTv/USSB system owners. Wink allows viewers to access a wide variety of information about programming they are watching, buy products, or upgrade their DirecTv or USSB service via remote control. Thomson Consumer Electronics and Hughes Network Systems are expected to build DirecTv/Wink receivers for rollout in the third quarter, though DirecTv subscribers with Wink-enabled TVs, such as some Toshiba models, will be able to receive the service in the second quarter, DirecTv President Eddy Hartenstein said. As reported, DirecTv also outlined plans to offer TiVo’s programmable, customizable storage service, with Philips incorporating it into a DirecTv/USSB receiver for release in the fourth quarter. Finally, DirecTv plans to unveil late this year a receiver incorporating an Internet browsing service and a hard drive for storage, similar to EchoStar’s WebStar, DirecTv Executive Vice President Larry Chapman said. DirecTv does not plan to introduce any computer-related products in the near future, such as EchoStar’s PC adapter card, Hartenstein said, despite researching such a product for several years. “After doing a lot of research, we’ve really decided that we’re a TV-centric business, and I think you’ll find the slight delay was worth it.” DirecTv also will not try to integrate its TiVo, Wink, and Internet browsing products into one receiver this year, Chapman said, opting to use 1999 to evaluate consumer interest in each service. “There’s something to getting a product to market now, without the massive integration issues between putting a Wink box and a TiVo box together,” he said. EchoStar is the only manufacturer of the WebStar box, Chairman Charlie Ergen said, because, “We couldn’t get the other guys to do it. It’s too hard.” EchoStar also is not interested in offering Wink’s service, he said, because it plans to roll out a similar service—Open TV—later this year in its lower-end receivers. Stringer Preaches Ease of Use for Digital Future Sony President Howard Stringer delivered the opening keynote address at CES yesterday, telling manufacturers simplicity is the key to consumer acceptance of digital home networking. “Ease of use is the prerequisite of consumption,” Stringer said, predicting interoperability between consumer electronics products and computers will render technology “invisible” and user-friendly. He also said cooperation between consumer electronics manufacturers on digital standards is the only way this can be achieved. “We must be credible, and in order to be credible we must cooperate,“ Stringer said. He urged manufacturers to adopt IEEE 1394 technology and subscribe to Sony’s Home Audio-Video Interoperability standards to achieve complete, open-ended digital home networking systems. Stringer also asked CE manufacturers to endorse methods to fight digital piracy using computer chips embedded in digital components. However, Thomson Consumer Electronics said Wednesday it supports using digital copyright protection measures similar to the smart cards currently used in DBS systems. Stringer also cautioned manufacturers from allowing Internet sales to phase out traditional consumer electronics retailers. TURN THE PAGE OTHER ISSUES: Thursday, Jan. 7, 1999 Saturday, Jan. 9, 1999 Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999   Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.