Top Intel Media engineer leaves endeavor

Intel Media, the chipmaker's Internet-based pay TV endeavor scheduled to launch this year, has lost its top engineer, Jim Baldwin, according to a published report.

An Intel Media spokesperson told GigaOM that Baldwin, who joined the company as vice president of engineering for Intel Media after most recently spearheading Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mediaroom activities, "left Intel Media to pursue opportunities outside the company." Baldwin's LinkedIn profile, however, listed his current status as "retired," the publication said.

The departure leaves Intel Media without a key engineering executive as it nears the launch of a business that, the chipmaker believes, will shake up the pay TV universe via a TV subscription service delivered over the Internet but with many of the features consumers expect from their traditional pay TV services, such as a catch-up feature. The service will hinge on the purchase of an Intel made set-top box but will also work with connected smartphones, tablets and other devices.

Intel plans to launch the service later this year in competition--or alongside, depending on your perspective--existing cable, satellite and IPTV services. Baldwin, who had experience with WebTV before joining Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), was "a key architect of digital video technology for various products including WebTV Plus, Echostar Dishplayer, DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) Ultimate TV and Microsoft TV," the story continued, quoting from Baldwin's bio on the Intel Media site.

"No matter the circumstances, losing a key exec during the last stretch of the race can't be good news for Intel Media," Janko Roettgers wrote in the story.

While not commenting further on the circumstances surrounding Baldwin's departure, the Intel Media spokesperson told the publication that "he will be missed but we have a very strong engineering organization in place with a deep leadership bench."

For more:
- GigaOM has this story

Related articles:
Intel closes in on programming deals for OTT service with Viacom, NBCU, Time Warner
Intel says its OTT service will expand pay TV space