AT&T; to Offer Cable Channels Online

AT&T; Inc. is launching an Internet TV service that allows subscribers to watch live cable channels such as Fox News on any computer with a broadband connection for $20 a month.

The AT&T; Broadband TV service to be announced today features about 20 channels of live and made-for-broadband content. The channel lineup includes the History Channel, the Weather Channel, the Food Network, Bloomberg and Oxygen. Additional channels will be added soon, the company said without elaborating.

The content is being provided by MobiTV Inc., a company that has specialized in delivering live cable channels to cellphones through wireless carriers such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cingular Wireless, which is majority owned by AT&T.;

In contrast to many Internet-based video services, where the viewing window is considerably smaller than most computer monitors, the new AT&T; offering will allow users to expand the picture to full screen. The service requires Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player for playback.

Viewers will see whatever commercials are being shown on the live broadcast, but no advertisements are planned for the browser window and control panel that frame the TV picture.

AT&T; Broadband TV will be available to customers of rival Internet services such as cable broadband in addition to the company’s digital subscriber line base of 7.8 million accounts. It also will be accessible over Wi-Fi wireless services offered at retail locations.

Although live TV feeds over the Internet are relatively uncommon, online downloading of video clips and TV programs has hit the mainstream in the last year.

An AP-AOL Video poll found that more than half of Internet users have watched or downloaded video. News clips were the most popular, seen by 72% of online video viewers, followed by short movie and TV clips, music videos, sports highlights and user-generated videos.