Seattle Newspapers are claiming that Comcast has dropped the Microsoft set top software Foundation TV Foundation Edition software, for cable set tops, a cousin of the software used by Verizon in its FiOS TV service. In its place will go Guideworks, the system that Comcast uses throughout the rest of its 24 million home footprint, which it co-developed with Gemstar.
It was in May 2004, before Microsoft landed any of the major IPTV customers that have caused it so much trouble over the past few years, that Comcast and Microsoft announced an agreement that gave Comcast the ability to make Microsoft TV Foundation Edition software to up to 5 million of its US cable customers, with options to expand it, if it was a success.
Its testbed was Seattle, where it was supposed to be put on 500,000 set tops, but no-one thinks that number was ever reached. When we spoke to Microsoft at the time it told us that ‘It’s a signed deal, we’ve been paid the money and delivered the software,’ but it was never again referred to by Comcast.
Comcast confirmed to US newspapers last week that it plans to replace the Microsoft technology but never said just how many people there had it. Comcast has only said that it wants a single TV guide countrywide.
The Redmond company’s software for cable companies, Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, was also used by Cablevision in Mexico where it is understood that 4 million customers have the software installed on set tops, but Microsoft appears to have de-emphasized it since entering the IPTV market.
It is thought that Comcast can remotely soft load the new Guide in chunks of subscribers from June to September, and no hardware swap is required, as it was a condition of the original Comcast deal that Microsoft developed the software for existing (Motorola) hardware platforms.