15 April 2009

New functions make the Mediaroom experience more flexible and personalised.

The move towards consuming content on demand, rather than at the point of broadcast, is a transformational change in the media industry. And Microsoft’s Mediaroom technology is at the heart of this change.

Broadcasters around the world have realised that the days when shows went out at a fixed time, and then disappeared into the ether, are long gone. Now, the order of the day is content on demand, allowing viewers to watch TV programmes whenever they want to.

The digitisation of TV content is enabling media companies to transform their operations. Connected TV services offer viewers the ultimate in flexibility, meaning they can choose to watch what they want, when they want. Microsoft’s role in this shift is the Mediaroom multimedia and IPTV platform.

Since its launch almost two years ago, Mediaroom has reached a total of almost 2.5 million subscriber homes across the world. It has been adopted by many of the world’s leading communications companies, and in particular, by a number of cutting edge service providers looking to develop their businesses in the new world of converged media. Firms such as SingTel, which was a pioneer of the Mediaroom platform, BT, T-Home, Portugal Telecom, Swisscom, AT&T and MTS Allstream have chosen Mediaroom, and are busy developing IPTV services based on the platform.

Now Microsoft has enhanced its offering still further. At the start of 2009, it announced Mediaroom Anytime, which makes the ‘TV on your own time’ experience more compelling still for viewers, enabling them to access previously aired shows directly from the Interactive Program Guide or immediately restart currently airing shows without any preplanning or prior DVR recording.

These new functions are centred around making viewers’ Mediaroom-based experiences more flexible and personalised. Restart Anytime, for example, lets viewers rewind or restart the currently airing programme from any point, regardless of whether the show is being recorded or the TV was switched off or tuned to another channel. Live Anytime allows viewers to scroll backward in the Interactive Program Guide to watch previously aired programmes. These programmes can be made accessible through the service provider’s video on demand library. And Download Anytime extends Mediaroom-powered services to more consumers by enabling viewers to download on-demand movies and programmes to their set-top boxes to watch anytime, regardless of bandwidth constraints. For example, viewers could watch high-definition programmes on low-bandwidth networks.

SingTel, one of the pioneers of Mediaroom-based IPTV services, is currently working on trials of the Restart Anytime and Live Anytime functions, and aims to offer services using them to subscribers of its IPTV offering, mio TV, later in 2009 (for more on mio TV, see the June 2008 edition of Connections). Mediaroom Anytime functionalities can be added to SingTel’s existing connected TV service offerings via a simple software upgrade that requires no action by existing subscribers.

With powerful software and network connectivity TV is evolving to deliver richer, more immersive ways for consumers to watch anything, anytime and anywhere

Enrique Rodrigues, Microsoft “mio TV aims to be at the forefront of new innovations and services that will let our customers control what they watch, when they want,” says Low Ka Hoe, SingTel’s director of IPTV Business. “The ever-evolving Mediaroom platform and new Anytime features allow us to continue delivering enhanced value and a truly immersive TV viewing experience.”

At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas in January, Microsoft showed a range of applications that complement the Microsoft Mediaroom TV experience with content and services from the Internet. A particularly good example is based around the BBC’s popular motoring show Top Gear. BBC Worldwide’s TopGear.com site includes a wide range of interactive features and video on-demand functionality developed by emuse using Microsoft Mediaroom Anytime technology.

These applications were built on the Microsoft Mediaroom Presentation Framework platform, an applications environment within Mediaroom that provides the building blocks needed for creating innovative and intuitive user experiences for TV. Mediaroom Presentation Framework was just released to Mediaroom service provider customers and exciting applications will begin rolling out to consumers in the second half of 2009.

“Television is no longer a one-way broadcast experience. With powerful software and network connectivity TV is evolving to deliver richer, more immersive ways for consumers to watch anything, anytime and anywhere,” says Enrique Rodrigues, corporate vice president of the Connected TV Business Group at Microsoft. “These latest developments of the Mediaroom platform demonstrate how Microsoft is leading this transformation from broadcast to connected TV and shaping the consumer experience and expectation of TV.”

“TV viewing options are increasing exponentially, and consumers are coming to expect their TV service providers to bring fresh new services and content-viewing options to the table,” said Michelle Abraham, principal analyst at In-Stat. “As evidenced by the latest developments with Microsoft Mediaroom, consumers can be confident that choosing an IPTV-powered service guarantees connection to the TV you love, with rich interactivity and control over when they watch.”

But service providers need more than just great content and distribution tools if they are to make a success of their IPTV businesses. Developments in recent years have proved that advertising-funded models are the key to turning a profit, and Microsoft has thus created an advertising solution to run as part of Mediaroom. Launched late last year, the Mediaroom Advertising Platform offering allows broadband service providers to offer targeted, measurable and interactive advertising spots from one comprehensive platform.

Marking the first instance of Microsoft advertisement investments focused on TV services, the Mediaroom Advertising Platform brings together in one cohesive offering the addressability offered by IPTV technology with state-of-the-art tools for campaign and decision management powered by Microsoft Advertising. Now the interactivity, audience addressability and true measurement found in online advertising models can be applied to IP-powered television, opening new revenue opportunities for broadband service providers and more effective campaigns for advertisers. The Mediaroom Advertising Platform supports advertisement insertion into all TV content formats, including traditional linear television, video on demand, third-party interactive TV applications, as well as service-provider-owned assets including the electronic programme guide.

In addition to offering advertisers the capabilities to target specific groups and measure return on investment, the platform lets advertisers and their agencies adjust advertising campaigns in a timely manner on the basis of measured impressions and engagement. This helps brands reach the right audiences with relevant campaigns, which simultaneously helps increase viewer satisfaction.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of Microsoft Connections in Communications magazine.

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