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October 9, 2003
Microsoft: All Your TV Are Belong To Us
As blogged by Lost Remote, Reuters is reporting that Microsoft is starting to promote its video delivery system. In short, Microsoft wants telecommunications companies to use its format to distribute TV broadcasts, which would then be decoded in Microsoft-powered set-top boxes.
"Microsoft said that through the compression technology of its Windows Media Player 9 it can now offer standard broadcast quality television over an Internet connection of 1 Megabit per second (Mb/s). High definition TV will be offered if a consumer has a broadband Web connection that allows four to five Mb/s.Microsoft said Internet television should be cheaper to bring to consumers than current cable TV which is transmitted over a separate video network with MPEG compression technology.
A set top box to receive and decode Internet TV could cost as little as $50 in four years time, down from a bill for materials of $150 now."
Yeah, that's what I want -- to rely on the world's #1 monopoly for access to all my media. Anything proprietary is inherently more expensive -- that's basic economics. Why would the telcos opt for a system that, in the long run, will shift their profits into the hands of Microsoft?
The FCC recently passed legislation requiring that all TV's be able to receive digital signals without a set-top box. This move by Microsoft flies in the face of that consumer-friendly move by the FCC (one of its very few in recent years).
I think the telcos and the FCC are smarter than this and that Microsoft will have a hard time getting this widely adopted. That's my prediction, at least. What's yours?
Posted by Craig in Popular Media
Comments
Shouldn't it be "All You TV Are Belong To Us"? :-)
Posted by: Mitch at October 10, 2003 8:13 AM
Posted by: Craig at October 10, 2003 8:50 AM
Oh, and http://rmitz.org/AYB3.swf
Posted by: Craig at October 10, 2003 9:01 AM
My bad. I have seen it the other way. (And I still think it's funnier.) ;-)
Posted by: Mitch at October 10, 2003 10:58 AM
Microsoft just announced that they're working with Bell Canada (!) to implement this.
Oh, and more importantly, where did the expression "My bad" come from?
Posted by: Sam at October 11, 2003 11:09 AM
Well, if nobody else can get their act together to do it NOW, then why not Microsoft? After all, they're thinking that win media 9 can stream super hd in real time, then so be it. That's pretty cool.
And who cares if they're a monopoly - they really do look the other way on personal piracy of most of their products and give incredible discounts to students (heck, just *register* for one community college class at $30, and you're qualified to get visual studio.net for $89 instead of $1489) and they go after the major corporations.
what other organization gives TENS OF BILLIONS to solving real problems in the world? And the gates foundation only has something like 60 employees - compare this to the UNITED WAY who is just evil - talk about major administrative costs.
Gates may operate a monopoly, but he's a real modern-day Robin Hood.
Posted by: ben at October 13, 2003 12:56 PM
I with Ben on this. MS gives us laymen cheap and pretty damn reliable computing at amazingly low costs. And he's right about Gates -- name a bigger philanthropist that him. You gotta respect a guy who's done that much good, regardless of his company, personality, etc.
Posted by: D'Marcus at October 13, 2003 6:26 PM