Microsoft to Expand on TV

Microsoft Looks at IPTV Direction

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 02/02/2005 | 10:50 AM ]

Having become the world’s main maker of software and getting bigger and bigger with every new PC sold, Microsoft Corp. is looking at different markets outside the conventional PC world. For a number of years Microsoft tried to enter the TV broadcast market. Now with the help of the new Internet protocol television (IPTV) technology Microsoft’s efforts are about to pay of.

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“The technology can be used to offer a dizzying array of options: Desperate Housewives anytime you want it, the Super Bowl from a dozen different camera angles, and a nearly limitless number of channels. Telecom companies are embracing IPTV since they’re building their TV systems from scratch. Cable companies, which use older technology, are likely to begin migrating to IPTV over the next five years. Analyst Hervé Uteza with the Diffusion Group Inc. estimates that 15.3 million homes will subscribe to IPTV services worldwide by 2008, compared with 184 million using traditional cable technology,” reports BusinessWeek Online.

It seems that Microsoft’s future looks to be quite promising.

“Microsoft’s platform is the most promising. There will be a lot of Microsoft software on set-top boxes five years from now,” said analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research Inc.

• BusinessWeek Online: Microsoft May Be A TV Star Yet.