Microsoft

2008 Year in Review: Targeted advertising nears prime time

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:03:50 -0500

Way back in early 2007, a survey by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit found that more than 46 percent of IPTV executives worldwide felt that targeted advertising could be a major source of IPTV revenue within the following year. That didn't happen by early 2008, and it still hasn't happened at the end of 2008-though, depending on your definition of "targeted advertising," you may feel differently. The general concept of targeted advertising has in fact traveled a long road in almost two years since that survey, a bumpy one with a few sharp curves. Many broadband service providers have delayed or put off tests of targeted ad technology, due to the controversy the somewhat intrusive technology generated.

However, many people in the TV sector feel that telco TV players may have a chance to roll out targeted advertising in a much more consumer-friendly way. In 2008, the ad insertion solutions that telcos will need to advance their ad capabilities toward the targeted advertising model came a long way. The survey respondents back in early 2007 were right about one thing: Targeted advertising can be a major source of revenue. We're not there yet, but a little bit closer.

Set-top box market destined to decline

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:31:52 -0500

The global market for set-top boxes (STBs) for IPTV and other services may still have a few years of growth left, but after 2012, annual STB shipments probably will begin to decline, according to a new report from ABI Research. Sales of basic STBs are already sliding, and with more functions, such as ad insertion, likely to be embedded in network gear, the STB may gradually--and rightly--lose its center of power over digital TV services.

Possible evolving alternatives to traditional STBs include residential gateways and highly-functional gaming devices like the Xbox 360. Also, the funneling of Internet video directly to TVs out-fitted with Internet access also may play a role in the STB's demise.

For more:
- Telephony has this report

Microsoft adds Envivio, Harmonic to Mediaroom ecosystem

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:48:24 -0500

Microsoft is announcing in conjunction with TelcoTV 2008 that the number of households worldwide using its Mediaroom software has doubled in less than a year to more than 2 million homes with about 4 million set-top boxes worldwide. Paula Reinman, director of marketing for Mediaroom, also said the company has gained new ecosystem partners in the form of encoding/transcoding companies Envivio and Harmonic. Both companies have had their solutions qualified by the Microsoft Mediaroom Interoperability and Qualification Lab.

For more:
- Microsoft benchmarks its progress with Mediaroom. Release.

Sigma Designs teeters on DB's IPTV outlook

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:10:18 -0400

Semiconductor firm Sigma Designs saw Deutsche Bank cut its stock rating from "buy" to "hold" this week, on what Barron's Blogs said were concerns about the near-term IPTV outlook and Sigma's business opportunities with IPTV set-top box manufacturers. The DB analyst said IPTV rollouts throughout the world would slow within the next year, and specifically that AT&T's subscriber gains will slow.

That outlook might be hard for some to believe, as it comes on the heels on surprisingly strong IPTV subscriber gains by AT&T in the third quarter. There also have not yet been other indicators suggesting other IPTV launches will slow down, though at some point, the market obviously will be mature enough in some regions that rollouts will become fewer.

For more:
Barron's Blogs has this post

Alcatel-Lucent latest to enable targeted advertising

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:40:22 -0400

Microsoft and BigBand Networks both recently announced solutions to enable service providers to support targeted advertising for IPTV offerings, and now, Alcatel-Lucent has announced a new system looking to do the same. Though targeted advertising has gotten a bad rap from the controversy related to the NebuAd platform and others, it remains very important to service providers' future revenue prospects.

Newer concepts for enabling targeted advertising are focused more on aggregating general information on demographics an anonymous usage profiles of customers who have opted in to such programs, rather than specific personal information on users who haven't been given a choice in the matter. Alcatel-Lucent's solution is based on a new blade element for its 7450 Ethernet services switch.

For more:
- see this story at Telephony

Microsoft targets targeted advertising

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:11:50 -0400

Microsoft announced that it is rolling out an advertising solution as part of the Mediaroom platform at the IBC 2008 event in Amsterdam, just underway today. The new Microsoft Mediaroom Advertising Platform allows IPTV providers to support targeted, interactive advertising that can be monitored and measured. The solution allows ad insertion into a range of content types, including linear TV, video on demand, third-party interactive applications and service provider-owned assets, such as the Electronic Programme Guide. It will be available next year to carriers using Mediaroom, according to IPTV News.

Targeted advertising has, of course, been a hot topic for some time, and vendors have been responding by lining up solutions of different kinds. BigBand Networks just announced a new personal media system that supports targeted ads.

For more:
- see this story at IPTV News

Ericsson lands Sonaecom, aims for complete IPTV package

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:08:34 -0400

Ericsson has landed Portugal's Sonaecom as an IPTV customer for multiple solutions, including middleware. The vendor last year acquired Tandberg Television, a move that brought the network equipment manufacturer closer to a market that fellow vendor giant Alcatel-Lucent and others had dominated. Now, Ericsson is focused on piecing together a comprehensive IPTV approach that includes network equipment, video gear, applications and software. To further its strategy, the company announced new IPTV middleware later at IBC2008 in Amsterdam. The middleware offering particularly will help the company compete against Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft and other middleware specialists.

For more:
- see this post at TeleGeography
- check out this coverage at Light Reading

Reliance eyes IPTV launch this year

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:43:12 -0400

Reliance Communications reiterated that it is planning to launch IPTV service before the end of 2008, according to a statement by company president Mahesh Prasad in The Economic Times of India. As early as January 2007, Reliance had said that it was targeting a launch before the end of this year, and Prasad's comments suggested that the service provider is starting to see the demand for which it was hoping. Reliance announced an IPTV-related partnership with Microsoft late last year, but it seems to have been taking its time while other service providers in India began their own TV rollouts.

For more:
- read this story at The Economic Times

Related articles:
Reliance said 18 months ago it would launch by the end of 2008. Reliance report
India--and the rest of Asia--has been seen as the next IPTV hotbed. India report

Microsoft pushes into TV ads with Navic buy

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:31:48 -0400

Meeting primarily with a telco audience at NXTcomm last week, Microsoft focused its efforts on demonstrating the capabilities of its Mediaroom TV platform and discussing its latest ecosystem partnerships. However, it should not go unmentioned that Microsoft also acquired interactive TV advertising technology firm Navic Networks last week. The Navic buy could have immediate implications for cable TV companies that use the digital set-top boxes on which Navic runs, and for Microsoft as the software giant goes toe-to-toe with Google.

For more:
- read this story at The Seattle Times

Related articles:
Microsoft announced new Mediaroom partners at NXTcomm Microsoft report
Microsoft launched a beta of the Mediaroom Presentation Framework last month Microsoft report

Microsoft Mediaroom adds partners, reaches 2 million

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:52:10 -0400

Microsoft recently announced a beta version of its Mediaroom Presentation Framework, and now says that it is bringing on several new partners to its Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV ecosystem. Those partners include Hewlett-Packard, Tech Mahindra, 180Squared, Agilent, IneoQuest and Harris. Microsoft claims that 2 million IPTV subscribers are now using Mediaroom, and that the second million have come on board only in the past month. The new partner alignments show that the software giant is bringing more systems integration and management expertise into its ecosystem.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Related articles:
Microsoft released the Mediaroom Presentation Framework last month Microsoft report
The French Soft At Home venture is looking to challenge Microsoft Microsoft report

The real battle for the living room

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:42:17 -0400

Telcos and cable TV providers are tussling over who will own the TV/video pipeline into consumer living rooms, and it is fun to watch them one-up one another as they pile on the HDTV channels and make promises about what is to come next. But, the real battle for the living room is about to happen on the software front.

Microsoft recently announced the beta version of its Mediaroom Presentation Framework, with all kinds of new goodies for IPTV service providers. However, the Soft At Home consortium led by France Telecom also is looking to work its way into consumer living rooms possibly to challenge Microsoft, and how video content is organized, presented and managed for IPTV services.

Soft At Home was announced a few months ago, but there has not been much detail since (The group's website consists of about three pages).

Next week at NXTcomm, I will be meeting with executives from both Soft At Home and Microsoft Mediaroom (not simultaneously, though that might be fun). Look to FierceIPTV next week for more detailed reports on their distinct approaches, as well as other show news.

-Dan

Russia's Corbina aims for mid-year IPTV launch

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:57:13 -0400

Russia's Corbina Telecom, a subsidiary of wireless and wireline carrier giant VimpelCom, is planning to launch a Corbina TV IPTV service in Moscow and other Russian cities, as well as in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The launch will begin in the middle of this year. Corbina Telecom has teamed up with Microsoft and will deploy the software firm's Mediaroom IPTV platform, becoming the first carrier in Russia to use the Microsoft platform. Corbina also will use set-top boxes from Motorola. The service provider will offer both standard and high-definition content, and is looking to package Corbina TV with a triple-play service offering.

Meanwhile, despite rapid growth of pay TV options in Eastern Europe, a new study from Research and Markets suggests IPTV platforms will have a tough time finding traction. The study says that by 2012 IPTV platforms will account for less than 3 percent of the homes in the region.

For more:
- check out this Corbina coverage at IPTV News
- and this post on the new study at IPTV news

Related articles:
A 2007 report ranked Russia in the Top 10 IPTV markets Russian IPTV report
Russia has previously been assumed to be a difficult market for IPTV Russia report

Microsoft releases Mediaroom Presentation Framework

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:25:56 -0400

IPTV service providers AT&T and BT are among those that have in their hands the new release of the Mediaroom Presentation Framework from software giant Microsoft. The two are among the more than 150 companies--most of them software developers--involved in Microsoft's beta program release of the software, key aspects of which allow service providers and content developers to combine broadcast content with Internet content. Microsoft demonstrated at the International Consumer Electronics Show back in January how an IPTV customer could benefit from this capability by watching a TV news channel and simultaneously pulling in a Web news feed, video and other online information. The new framework also is capable of speeding up application development.

Microsoft is planning to have the final commercial version of the framework ready by the end of this year. The company has several large service provider customers for Mediaroom, though France Telecom earlier this year showed some interest in competing in the IPTV software space against Microsoft, saying a new consortium might be able to better address evolving carrier needs.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
- Mediaroom enters TV streaming war. Mediaroom report
- France Telecom announced plans for a software consortium in February. France Telecom report

Mediaroom pal Sigma offers new chip

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Semiconductor company Sigma Designs has introduced a second-generation chip for IPTV set-top boxes that the company claims offers a 50% performance improvement. Sigma has been the only set-top chip contributor to Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV platform. That might be kind of like a tight, but little-known garage band opening for The Rolling Stones: It is a surprising and tremendous gig to have, and you have to keep fighting off bigger names from taking over your position.

Of course, Microsoft's IPTV dominance can be compared to The Stones' reign over rock in other ways: Despite cracks in the facade, the power remains as full as ever.

For more:
- see this coverage at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

180Squared Launches Mediaroom Interface

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

A team of former Microsoft Mediaroom engineers now known as 180Squared has announced the availability of 180Squared Framework, an encapsulation interface into Mediaroom middleware for existing billing/operational support system (B/OSS) applications and emerging third-party software. The company is leveraging expertise developed at Microsoft to now help carriers maximize the profitability of their Mediaroom service.

Key benefits of the 180Squared Framework include a standard interface for 180Squared and third-party application development, monitoring the health and traffic flow of Mediaroom services and applications to ensure proper load balancing and prevent service degradation, and reduction in capital expenses and operational costs for implementing Mediaroom.

180Squared cites a big market for their product, with global IPTV subscriber rates expected to reach over 72 million in 2011, while Bill Gates predicated Mediaroom would reach 1 million global subscribers in the first quarter of 2008 as service providers turn up two new Microsoft Mediaroom customer households every minute. 180Squared intends to cash in on this market by helping carriers with IPTV planning and design, customization, integration and their fancy new software.

For more:
- Find the original press release here.
- Play the "Top 4 Reasons for the 180Squared Framework" YouTube video here.

Related articles:
Mediaroom enters TV streaming war
Microsoft's new IPTV brand: Mediaroom

Hollywood veteran set to make shows for Xbox 360

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:30 -0400

Microsoft is continuing its effort to make the Xbox the STB of choice for younger IPTVers, cutting a deal with Hollywood veteran Peter Safran to produce original content targeted at 14- to 34-year-old males for distribution on the system, the New York Times reported yesterday. Safran said the initial 10-minute or less shows will be scripted, rather than reality tv shows and focus on genres like comedy and horror. Safran's company represents actor and producer Sean Combs ("Monster's Ball"), actor and writer Nia Vardalos ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") and filmmakers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer ("Epic Movie"). The episodes should hit in the fall.

Although most recognized for its gamer audience--Halo and Call of Duty 4 are massive hits on the Xbox--some 10 million people have signed up for the Xbox Live service. Microsoft says the deal with Safran is the first of many to come. Current programming on the Xbox 360 includes movies and selections from cable networks like the Sundance Channel and Spike TV. Viewers pay for access to films with points that can be purchased for cash or accumulated through activities on the system.

For more:
Read the New York Times story (Reg. Req.)

Related articles:
Microsoft's Gates pushes Xbox 360 at STB
Microsoft's Xbox IPTV STB revealed

Mediaroom enters TV streaming war

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:50 -0400

Microsoft's next upgrade of its Mediaroom software will enable the fusion of live video and web streams to the TV. The "Milwaukee" upgrade is also promising improved personalization and recommendation options. On show at the IPTV World Forum last week the software is due to ship late summer. The major upgrade comes as operators rush to gain dominance as the critical home hub provider. At the same forum BT Vision announced it would be upgrading its service using the next generation Mediaroom platform

TiVo also announced a partnership with YouTube to enable the streaming of their massive library of user generated video to the TV using a new TiVo box. Apple earlier this year announced an upgrade for its Apple TV set top box which will also include the same ability to mix downloaded VOD content with streamed content from the Internet.

Remarkably there remains little consumer research on how audiences will use these fusion services, nor how best to structure the browser interface to optimize the consumer experience. Also uncertain is how consumers will respond to the inferior quality of online video when blown-up to a full wide-screen TV size.

YouTube has been recently experimenting with HD formats set for PC use. Last week YouTube also launched a white label API which enables publishers to embed video content using their own skin and specifications. The API threatens the many video providers that have grown by letting publishers manipulate their players. The service enables publishers and enterprises to effectively outsource the pain of video delivery to Google's robust video delivery infrastructure.

For more:
- Microsoft preps next generation Mediaroom Article
- TiVo and YouTube to deliver web video to the TV Article

Related articles:
Lounge room wars Article
Apple seeks control of the video home Article

Microsoft gets bumped by Alca-Lu and Telefonica

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:30 -0400

It is slightly old news but Microsoft's grip on the big European IPTV market is waning with Telecom Italia ditching Mediaroom in favor of Alcatel-Lucent's Spanish-developed middleware MiViewTV platform.

The MiViewTV platform was first developed in-house at Spain's Telefonica, a controlling shareholder of Telecom Italia. Then U.S.-based Lucent agreed to take over development and marketing of the platform in 2006 and to be Telefonica network integrator partner for its various IPTV plays. Alcatel and Lucent subsequently merged and worked with Telefonica to deploy the technology in each of Telefonica's IPTV plays. Aside from Spain these include Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic and now Italy.

According to Light Reading Microsoft had been working for several years with the Italian incumbent as it prepared for deployment of its Alice Home IPTV service. But when Telefonica took control last year of the Italian incumbent it decided to harmonize with its other IPTV plays and Microsoft's technology was left in the labs.

Recently the French incumbent Orange announced it was sponsoring an alliance to develop and deploy a standardized middleware platform for all carriers to use. The move was seen as an attempt to stop Microsoft dominating the IPTV delivery. Many agree the middleware platform will be the key service platform for the expected suite of next generation broadband services.

At the IPTV world forum last week Japan electronics giant NEC showcased its new end-to-end IPTV platform and video delivery system for carriers using an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) architecture. The platform will work in conjunction with NEC's video-on-demand server. NEC is initially targeting IMS carriers, mostly in Asia where IMS is better accepted than in the U.S.

For more:
- Italians snub Microsoft Article
- NEC announces IPTV platform Release
- Alcatel-Lucent and NEC recently inked a joint development LTE deal Release

Related articles:
Telefonica and Telecom Italia are featured in our special review of the European IPTV market
French Challenge for Mediaroom Article

Microsoft licenses Flash

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0400

Adobe's Flash player is emerging as the dominant mobile standard for mobile video after Microsoft and Adobe inked a licensing deal this week. The deal follows similar agreements with Nokia and Verizon to deploy Flash Lite. The Microsoft deal enables web browsing of Flash Player-compatible content on future editions of Windows Mobile-based handsets as well as the Internet Explorer browser.

With half a million devices already loaded with Flash Lite and Flash the technology of choice for an increasing number of content creators the technology is fast becoming become the de facto standard for mobile rich media. The only hold-out is Apple which developed its own player for video content for the iPhone.

For more:
- Adobe Microsoft licensing announcement

Related articles:
Microsoft inks Silverlight deal with Nokia Article
Adobe not good enough for iPhone Article

SPOTLIGHT: Yahoo to launch Flickr Video

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:00 -0400

Yahoo is expected to launch its Flickr Video site next month according to the chat at the photo sharing site's recent fourth birthday celebrations. Adding video capability to the big picture sharing site always seemed a no-brainer and has been part of the blogosphere tech chat since way back in late 2005. Yahoo already has its own video sharing site which is expected to remain--at least for the time being. Lots of claims it is all too late. But, with video set to become the dominant medium of the Internet over the next five years, Yahoo (and Microsoft for that matter) can't afford to be a bit player. Blog report