Comcast to offer HD video Skype calls on TV sets to subscribers

Comcast and Skype are teaming up to take social networking to the TV screen. The free VoIP provider will be available to Comcast's 22.8 million cable TV subscribers as part of a deal that will allow customers to use their TV service for high-definition video calls to other Skype users through their TVs.

Customers will be provided the Skype software, a video camera, set-top box and a customized remote control, and will be able to video chat or exchange text messages on their TV screen. The other caller will need nothing more than a Skype account and a device on which to use Skype. Customer trials for the Skype service will begin in the next few months; Comcast said more details on the service would be available later this year.

Customers who opt for the Skype service also can import their contacts from Facebook, Outlook, Gmail and a variety of smartphone contact lists.

"TV has evolved into a social experience, and Comcast and Skype will be delivering a product that personalizes the TV experience even more, and brings friends and family together through the biggest screen in their homes," Comcast Cable president Neil Smit said in a statement.

The deal gives customers one more reason to hold onto their cable subscriptions, at a time when increasing numbers are opting not to, and gives Comcast an additional potential revenue source, and deepens its IP telephone presence.

It also gives Microsoft, which bought Skype for $8.5 billion last month, another way to generate revenue for the service, and a new source of customers for the calling service.

Neither Comcast nor Skype disclosed the financial arrangement behind the deal.

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