Free Republic

Microsoft is pulling the plug on MSN TV, a service formerly known as WebTV, as Apple ramps up its set-top box efforts. The pioneering service, one of the first to offer Internet access via television sets, will shut down September 30, Microsoft revealed in an e-mail to subscribers and an FAQ posted to its Web site. WebTV, which was founded by Web entrepreneur Steve Perlman in 1996, was acquired by Microsoft for $425 million in 1997. …

Veteran programmer Rob Barnett recently attended a breakfast meeting of television executives where the talk turned, as it almost always does these days, to “disruption,” the industry buzzword for the way new technology is upsetting the TV applecart. From somewhere down the table, he heard a question: “Has anybody here cut the cord?” — that is, dropped cable service in favor of just watching TV through the Internet? Barnett shrugged and raised his hand. “Mine was the only one,” he recalls. “But when it went up, I saw beads of sweat break out on the foreheads of some of the...

What's the difference between the big screen in your living room, the smaller screen on your laptop or the tiny one in your pocket? Size aside, there's quite a difference, media executives say. To many, it's a mystery why we can't easily watch online broadcasts of the TV signals that are transmitted by networks over the air, on cable or via satellite. Even Bryan Perez, the senior vice president for NBA Digital, admits, "It's a challenge to explain." The simplified answer is that various media companies have a financial stake in where and how an episode of "Mad Men" can...

Does anybody know If/Where I can watch the convention speech tonight live? I don't have cable at my apt, nor do I have a TV antenna and most of my friends aren't into polotics. However my college does have very high speed internet access! Any help would be appreciated.

<p>A growing number of Americans would rather surf the Web than channel surf.</p> <p>More than a third of Americans are more likely to download music, create a Web page or edit a digital movie than watch television, says a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.</p>