Microsoft has completed a series of deals with telecoms operators in Western Europe and the US that will mean 75% of fixed phone lines will use Microsoft software to access television services via broadband.
The deal, thought to be worth at least an initial $10 billion, has ensured that Microsoft’s software will dominate the world of converged broadband internet and television.
Ed Gracayk, Microsoft’s TV director of marketing said: “A lot of people have confused thinking about internet television and wrongly imagined people watching television a PC screen, which is not the case. People will be using an internet connection to supply a vast range of programmes to their high-definition television sets.”
New technologies and increasingly high consumer expectations are rapidly leaving behind traditional television content suppliers.
Gracayk added: “One of the problems facing traditional broadcasters is that high-definition television takes six times as much bandwidth, severely limiting the number of channels cable companies can offer, whereas internet protocol television (IPTV) can supply virtually unlimited programming.”
IPTV provides pictures as good as television from digital, terrestrial, cable or satellite providers, but allows viewers to select what they want to watch from libraries of millions of movies and videos, making today’s multi-channel choice seem archaic.
Microsoft’s IPTV software is called Microsoft IPTV Edition, or “Next Generation TV” and the company is determined that it will be the operating system for internet television in the same way that Windows became the standard on PCs.
Gracayk said: “Companies are often reluctant to announce that they have bought next Generation TV software because they want to steal a march on the satellite and cable providers.”
The rollout of IPTV is likely to boost revenues right across the sector as well as giving Microsoft a fresh software revenue stream.
Microsoft began to invest in IPTV a decade ago, and the medium is expected to launch in the US by the middle of 2005 and in Europe towards the end of the year. US telecoms giant, Verizon Communications, announced its intention to use Microsoft’s software for its IPTV rollout (see The Future Of Television – IPTV).
Video Networks is already providing broadband internet access and TV content through its HomeChoice service in the UK, with broadcast channels and on-demand programming being delivered to customers homes via the phone line directly to the television set.
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