Mediaroom

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

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 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