There was an inevitability to it. Thirty-eight million PCs in the U.S. are broadband connected. That's like 38 million set top boxes."

Kevin Corbett, vice president and general manager of the Content Services Group in Intel's Digital Home Group

Just in case you missed it, Intel announced last week its Viiv technology initiative. In Q1 2006, Intel claims that 50+ companies will offer content services and software that work with Viiv technology-based PCs. The chip maker said prospective partners for its Viiv effort include movie, TV, music, games and software companies. Intel plans to certify their content to ensure, among other things, that it has been adapted to work with TV screens and remote controls.

And what will you find? Intel says "subscription-based, pay-per-view, and free video-on-demand services ... [and] free gaming services offering hundreds of games on demand for play online."

This should be an interesting next step for the broadcast networks who have begun experiments with Apple, Comcast, and the Dish Network to show content to viewers who would pay for it. (see: The Traditional Television Business Model and Video on Demand and Robert Iger Believes Large-Screen Version Worth More Than $1.99)

Previous home entertainment efforts from PC-centric companies have mainly focused on consumers who want to watch TV programming on their PCs. While this niche of people is growing, most people still prefer watching video on their televisions. Intel seems to have noticed that.

"Intel is trying to accelerate a flow of content in the other direction -- adapting Internet-based services that were designed for PCs to be seen on TV sets and using logos to help consumers know what hardware and services work together." (The Wall Street Journal)

Another thing that Intel may have learned from watching the misfortune of others is how to deal with pirated material. With Viiv, Intel will supposedly to use their unprotected content as they can now. However, Viiv will support a variety of content-protection technologies to protect content owners.