To understand how much television could soon change, it helps to visit an Intel division here that runs like a startup. Erik Huggers, a Dutch-born former British Broadcasting Corp. executive, has assembled a 350-person team with talents beyond computer chips—programmers, industrial designers, artists and experts in fields like video encoding. Working in bright, newsroom-style offices that differ from standard Intel cubicles, they’re creating an Internet-based service that doesn’t only serve up on-demand programs but overhauls live TV as well. Intel’s plans include a server farm to record every piece of programming aired—local, national and international—and store it for at least three days in the “cloud.” With an Intel-designed set-top box, people won’t have to own DVRs or even plan to record programs. Switch on the TV in the middle of any show, and a viewer can simply go back to the beginning.
