The Long, Steady March of IPTV—Microsoft Set-Top Boxes Now in One Million Homes
Erick Schonfeld
25 comments »
Microsoft has been trying to get into the set-top box software business for more than a decade. Its current efforts, known as Mediaroom, are focused on a big push behind IPTV (Internet protocol TV). Despite its name, this is not TV over the Web on your PC. Rather, Microsoft is bringing Internet technologies for delivering video to telephone companies looking to compete with cable.
Today, Microsoft announced that one million Mediaroom-powered set-top boxes are delivering TV around the world through more than 20 service providers. These include AT&T’s U-verse, Duetche Telekom, and Briitish Telecom’s BT Vision, which just announced that later this year it will make its IPTV service available in the UK to anyone with an xBox 360 console, in addition to the conventional set-top boxes it uses today.
Here is a partial breakdown of Microsoft’s biggest IPTV deployments:
- AT&T U-verse has 126,000 IPTV subscribers in the U.S. (as of October, 2006), with a goal of one million by the end of 2008.
- BT Vision has 100,000 subscribers (pre-Xbox).
- Deutsche Telekom passed the 100,0000-subscriber mark in December.
One million TV subscribers spread across the globe is still tiny compared to cable and satellite TV, but it is an important milestone. If it takes Microsoft another year to get to two million subscribers worldwide, the cable and satellite companies won’t have much to worry about. But if the momentum can build and Microsoft can get to 10 million subscribers, it could start to become a real business for Microsoft.
Microsoft is not the only player in IPTV set-top boxes, but it is an important bellwether for this emerging market. Google might want to speed up its efforts in this area before the market really takes off.
It’s a shame AT&T is the only one doing IPTV at the moment in the US, they really don’t seem to be interested in upgrading their infrastructure where I live, leaving me only with comcast.
Wow, this seems pretty cool.
This could be a hit for Microsoft, which desperately needs one.
At 17+ million units shipped, the Xbox 360 is Microsoft’s best asset for developing IPTV. Now if I only could get mine to work…
Somebody, no doubt a lone voice, finally talked common sense into the Senior management at Microsoft. The company has been frittering away its resources on failed OS and server strategies, inconsequential consumer web properties, and speculative ventures that may never pay.
Focusing on major carrier revenue infrastructure services and systems finally tells me that despite all the horrible missteps, they have retained a shred of sanity.
This path towards carrier class video delivery must have been long in coming, taking time to build relationships, and the investment must have been enormous.
It is not a path to overnight success, but it is one of the few things that will provide a template for the companies future as consumer OS wanes, and as business and OEM servers are usurped by utility services and SAAS.
IPTV might be sometimes the ultimate solution for home. Good “sunglass” for Microsoft to endure the blue rays?
Hoping for the better good.
http://pa.gd
Also worthy of a seperate article, it seems that MS is going to (too late) liberalize server licensing to better compete with LAMP. The staffers who sat on this one move to remove the sessions limitations need to be beaten with a steel pipe.
Only a Microsoft-Sized behemoth could have weathered this storm in tact. And it may not matter in the end.
Sorry for the off topic, but actually it is the whole topic.
Alan - I’m not really sure what you are talking about “failed OS and server strategies” by Microsoft. Let’s see…In 2007 Q2, Windows server revenues grew 18.7% to $5 billion and Microsoft had a total market share to 67.1% of servers shipped during Q2 2007. I’m not saying MS servers are great, but it’s a pretty ignorant and sweeping statement to call this server strategy a failure.
Lack of Nuance on my part. Hyperbole, if you will. Taking a very long view, the serving infrastructure for web applications is owned by ‘other’. Yes, the unit as a profit center is wildly profitable and not a failure - it is the vision looking far forward that seems to be tone deaf to a sector that has already passed the emerging stage.
Consumer OS - again, my bad, hyperbole. MS cant but make money off of a very substandard OS. How much longer for expensive desktop os, and what is the company’s vision?
It may be, however, that the recent restructuring of server licensing is a harbinger of a new fight.
I agree with magnusdopus above, the Xbox seems like the logical Trojan Horse into the home. Just plug in the cable or RJ-45 and you have 17 million set top boxes. I am not sure what the right strategy is here. But I am baffled by the approach of adding another box to the offering.
Too bad the article doesn’t mention the biggest players in this BT project, and IP Set-Top boxes in general - Motorola and Cisco/ SA.
Reliance communications is Microsoft’s partner in India.
Press release here.
http://www.microsoft.com/tv/co.....ncePR.mspx
Why do you spell all the European companies wrong???
“Deutsche Telekom” not “Duetche Telekom” and “British Telecom” not “Briitish Telecom”
@ all the Xbox comments - completely agree, and in fact we saw Bill G just give his CES Keynote announcing content deals with Xbox Live and NBC, Showtime, and others. Erick, are you not considering this IPTV yet?
http://www.beilblog.com
wish Microsoft was working with Verizon FiOS…..the service is great but wish I could get rid of the Motorola STB.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.....ws/961166/
Let’s talk about ATT U-verse… I initially signed up because the price was right; and then the bad news followed. I get ONE HD stream, that’s right 1. You can record an HD program or watch one live, but that’s it: ONE. So while you’re watching the big game and the another show decides it wants to record, well… The DVR software is pitiful, lousy menus, slow response and a dire lack of features (haven’t these people heard of Tivo…?) Comcast and DirecTV may be the devil, but U-verse isn’t going to lead you to the promised land.
If anything, Microsoft is not a leader in this field, but a laggard.
The future of internet television will be the proliferation of hundreds of new, niche content programmers that will emerge when streaming costs come down to earth. There are several companies that specialize in providing these services, most notably NeuLion. They already have several successful STB programs.
I laughed when Microsoft announced how many MCE machines they have sold. My wife’s PC came with it and she doesn’t even know what it is. After playing with it for a while, I determined that it is basically useless.
IPTV specifically refers to closed/proprietary networks. Internet television holds more potential because it will allow programmers to reach content providers directly - without the expensive middleman. Narrowstep is an early leader in this field.
http://rsslivetv.com
This post makes me think about how the walls are closing in for Joost, who should’ve thought of going to our living room a long time ago before the big players like microsoft, who’s already in our living room via XBox Live decided to get into IPTV.
I wrote this
http://www.gubatron.com/blog/2.....joost-die/
BT Vision is not being opened up to all xbox 360 owners.
To use the service you will have to already use BT as your ISP.
I have u-verse and I am going back to cable. The u-verse dvr is horrible. It does not record shows when it should and the guide data is always wrong. The hardrive is way to small. When they allow 2 Hd streams to a Tivo HD I might come back since the channel line up and picture quality are not bad. Do not get U-verse if you actually want the settop box’s and the dvr to actually work because they don’t and guess what they run microsoft software.