Article: Microsoft's push to link cable TV up with the Net

Microsoft, Bill Gates' software giant, is hoping to take centre- stage as the Internet and television converge by linking up with leading US cable companies. Cathy Newman asks what Microsoft stands to gain, and what cable companies have to lose.

In recent weeks, Microsoft has reportedly been talking with all the big US cable companies - US West, Tele-Communications (TCI), Cox Communications, and Time Warner.

Microsoft's interest in television took off earlier this year when it invested $1bn (pounds 600m) in an 11.5 per cent stake in Comcast, the fourth- largest cable television operator in the US, and bought Web TV Networks, a digital television set-top box maker, for $425m. Recent reports ...

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