Remember the upcoming Intel online TV service, the one promising to change an industry? It appears the project is headed towards the selling block, at least according to AllThingsD and Bloomberg.
Anonymous sources with "knowledge of the situation" tell AllThingsD US telco Verizon is in "advanced negotiations" over the service. Bloomberg seconds the Verizon mention, and adds Liberty Global (the owner of Virgin Media) as another potential buyer.
"Negotiations are early and could fall apart," Bloomberg adds.
Both Verizon and Liberty Global have pay TV business interests-- Verizon has an own service, while Liberty Global owns a stake in multiple pay TV operators, such as Charter Communications.
The Intel take on online TV has something of a storied history. Reportedly called OnCue, it was unveiled back in February 2013 by former BBC exec Erik Huggers and was to start operations by the end of the year as a combination of STB and Intel-branded online service.
Behind Huggers is a separate media division formed by around 300 employees from the likes of Apple, Jawone, BBC and Microsoft. It was to provide live TV via the internet (with smaller channel bundles than what cable companies offer) and a "Catch Up TV" video-on-demand services.
But then Intel's interest in TV appeared to fade, as current CEO Brian Krzanich would rather focus efforts on mobile device chips. "We believe we have a great [TV] user interface and the compression-decompression technology is fantastic," Krzanich says in a June 2013 Reuters interview. "But in the end, if we want to provide that service it comes down to content. We are not big content players."
First news of troubles surrounding OnCue emerged last month, with reports on Intel planning to scrap the service if it failed to find a partner in the near future. In that story Amazon and Samsung were mentioned as potential partners, although it appears nothing came out of such talks.
Go Intel May Turn Over Web TV Project to Verizon (AllThingsD)
