Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform is delivering video entertainment experiences to more than 1 million set-top boxes worldwide and its service provider customers are adding two new IPTV subscriber households every minute. The Mediaroom platform is on pace to reach 1 million subscriber homes in the first quarter of 2008. These milestones demonstrate the growing consumer demand for IPTV and connected television experiences that go beyond traditional pay-TV offerings. Helping to lead this connected TV revolution, Microsoft Mediaroom is transforming the way viewers experience television, movies, music, photos and games in their own homes.
Deployed or being trialed by more than 20 service providers worldwide on four continents and in 18 countries, Microsoft Mediaroom enables unique features and experiences, such as simultaneous recording of multiple high-definition and standard-definition TV channels, personal media sharing, whole-home and remote DVR, and multiple picture-in-picture scenarios. The platform also integrates with the Xbox 360 gaming device, bringing together next-generation television and gaming offerings into an integrated entertainment experience. In addition, Microsoft Mediaroom allows third parties to create exciting new TV applications and services that enrich the TV viewing experience through the multimedia application environment in the platform.
Further showcasing Microsoft's commitment to delivering unique connected TV services to consumers around the world, Microsoft announced several other Microsoft Mediaroom developments at the 2008 International CES:
- DVR Anywhere. This gives consumers the flexibility to watch their recorded programs on any TV in their home, further enhancing the platform's powerful connected TV capabilities. With DVR Anywhere, viewers could begin watching a movie in the living room, resume viewing it on the kitchen TV during dinner, and finish watching the same movie from the comfort of their bedroom. In addition, members of a household will never have to fight over the remote control again, due to the capability to watch the same or different recorded programs from multiple TVs in the home simultaneously while recording other shows to be viewed at their convenience.
- Futuristic connected TV applications for Microsoft Mediaroom. Microsoft is partnering with ChoiceStream Inc., emuse technologies, ES3, Showtime Networks Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. to demonstrate applications that showcase new connected TV applications and scenarios that are enabled by the extensible Microsoft Mediaroom platform. These next-generation scenarios will be on display in the Microsoft booth at the 2008 International CES show.
- Ecosystem partnership with Broadcom. Microsoft and Broadcom Corporation announced a collaboration in IPTV products. The collaboration includes Microsoft and Broadcom working together to enable the Microsoft Mediaroom client software to operate on next-generation set-top boxes utilizing the Broadcom BCM7405 system on a chip.