TV-Over-IP Technology Planned

As part of its longstanding effort to penetrate the TV industry, Microsoft is developing technology to deliver TV programming and video-on-demand over IP networks and trying to enlist partners to help in the effort. Microsoft claims that the technology, tentatively named Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), will reduce costs for cable providers and help telephone companies compete with cable providers by letting them offer video services. IPTV would also help Microsoft expand the market for Windows Media and related technologies and help push its consumer vision of the Windows PC as home entertainment hub.

Ambitious Plan

IPTV is considerably more ambitious than current Microsoft TV offerings, such as the Interactive Program Guide (IPG) and Foundation Edition. These products are meant to run on today’s TV technology, whereas IPTV envisions a complete overhaul of how TV is delivered to consumers.

Today, bandwidth constraints in the “last mile” between providers’ head-ends and consumers’ homes make it difficult to deliver reliable, high-quality video over IP. Microsoft assumes this problem will eventually be solved, perhaps through advances in video compression technology (such as Windows Media 9 Series) or as providers or governments run fiber-optic cable to homes.