Partnership Will Launch Video Game Channel : Technology: Venture among Sega, Time Warner and TCI is seen as the first of several involving interactive cable TV.
A cable TV channel devoted solely to video games will be launched early next year under a partnership teaming video game manufacturer Sega Enterprises, entertainment conglomerate Time Warner Inc. and cable giant Tele-Communications Inc.
The Sega Channel, as the venture is called, is the first in what is expected to be several new cable TV channels employing interactive technology. That technology allows viewers to instantly select the programs and movies they want to watch.
The companies expect 1 million subscribers by the end of 1994.
Japan-based Sega Enterprises is one of the leading manufacturers and distributors in the booming $5-billion-a-year video game industry.
TCI and Time Warner are the two largest cable TV operators in the country, with about 17 million subscribers between them.
Unlike other interactive cable TV networks in the works, the Sega Channel will not require any yet-to-be-deployed technology, such as fiber optics or video compression.
The new channel will be available to most of the country’s 58 million cable TV households.
The partners said subscribers will simply need a special decoder to link their Sega Genesis machine and their household cable wire. Viewers will then be able to select or preview any video games programmed in the system.
Sega, which has a library approaching 400 video games, said it will rotate a selection of different titles and previews of upcoming releases on a monthly basis. Subscribers will pay about $10 a month, an average rate for a pay-TV channel.
TCI and Time Warner are aggressively searching out new ventures in the emerging arena of high-technology television.
In addition, the companies are exploring ways to link telephones, personal computers and cable TV that will give subscribers a wide array of video, information and data services.
Delivery of video games directly into the home over cable TV lines is just one of scores of new services being studied by the television industry.
The cable TV industry is in the early stages of upgrading its systems to 500 or more channels, which by the turn of the century is expected to pave the way for instant delivery on demand of everything from computer programs to recorded music.
