--Signs IPTV Deals with Russia's Corbina, Taiwan's Chunghwa
Microsoft contacted [itvt] late last month to let us know that it has
released the beta version of its Microsoft Mediaroom Presentation
Framework to nearly 150 companies around the world, including
content providers and application developers, as well as operator
customers such as AT&T and BT. According to the company, the
Presentation Framework beta will allow service providers--either on
their own or with third parties--to quickly and cost-effectively build
and deploy rich-media IPTV services and applications that allow for
the "seamless blending" of a show's broadcast and Web elements.
Microsoft says that the Framework will allow content that is already
available on the Web to be repurposed, thus saving time and money.
Examples of applications enabled by the Presentation Framework,
according to the company, include personal media portals on the TV,
real-time social and communications capabilities, and news or sports
applications featuring multiple camera views. Microsoft is touting the
Presentation Framework as "a catalyst that stimulates great innovation
that will enable IPTV providers to substantially differentiate their
services from cable and satellite offerings over time."
In related news: Microsoft has signed Mediaroom deals with companies
in Russia and Taiwan. The Russian deal is with telecommunications
group, VimpelCom, whose subsidiary, Corbina Telecom, plans to
launch a Mediaroom-powered IPTV service, dubbed Corbina TV, in
mid-2008. At launch, the new service is slated to offer around 100
channels, a selection of HD programming, and a VOD service with
over 1,000 titles, including movies, TV series and cartoons. It will be
supported by a Motorola set-top box that will offer the option of a
160GB hard drive for DVR functionality, and will be offered as part of
a triple-play package. Corbina Telecom operates a fiber-to-the-building
network in Moscow, St. Petersburg and a number of other Russian
cities. "Corbina Telecom's fiber-optical network is reaching almost
every apartment building in Moscow and many other Russian cities and
is known for its speed and reliability, providing its users outstanding
Internet service," Corbina Telecom VP, Dmitry Malov, said in a
prepared statement. "With the Microsoft Mediaroom solution, Corbina
Telecom will also provide its users an outstanding TV service." The
Taiwan deal, meanwhile, is with that country's incumbent telco,
Chunghwa Telecom. It calls for the companies to launch a facility
called the IPTV Ecosystem Development Center in Taiwan that will
work with Taiwanese set-top vendors (including Tatung, which is the
only Taiwanese set-top vendor to have been certified by Microsoft to
date) and content providers to target China and other markets. The deal
will see Microsoft supplying Mediaroom to the joint venture, and
Chunghwa conducting research and development activities and serving
as systems integrator.
