TV Platform Updated

Minor enhancements to Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, a platform that enables TV operators to deliver interactive program guides and other features to TV watchers through set-top boxes, will let the platform support new types of hardware and services, and were likely designed with cable operator Comcast in mind.

Catering to Comcast?

Announced at the May 2004 National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) show and available in summer 2004, Foundation Edition 1.7 will support forthcoming dual-tuner digital video recording (DVR) set-top boxes from Motorola. (Dual-tuner DVR devices allow users to record one live TV show while watching a different show.) Satellite and cable TV providers have been deploying set-top boxes with built-in DVR capabilities as an incentive to get consumers to upgrade to digital cable. As a consequence, the market has shifted from the stand-alone DVR devices that pioneered the market: for instance, only 39% of the 3.2 million households using DVR in the United States at the end of 2003 were using a TiVo device, according to research by IDC. (This percentage includes set-top boxes from satellite TV provider DirecTV with built-in TiVo functionality.)