Microsoft Mediaroom used the platform of CES to declare that it has penetrated China, and said that its new customer, the Guangzhou Digital Media Group, would be the first to use its new network PVR software, called Anytime.
Guangzhou Digital Media Group, formerly Guangzhou Radio and Television Network, is the largest cable TV operator in Guangzhou City with 2.5 million cable TV subscribers, which it says it will convert to this new system over the next three years.
Given that this is an upgrade for a cable network, this opens up all of China’s 160 million cable TV homes, 75% of which are analog, for upgrade to Mediaroom. However Microsoft has almost been shut out of the pure IPTV market there since China Telecom told its outlying regions last Summer they must buy IPTV systems from either ZTE, UTStarcom or Alcatel-Lucent.
This is the first Microsoft Mediaroom service delivered on a cable network. Though the code base for Verizon is very different from Mediaroom, it is still essentially a cable system with some fiber and VoD only handled as an IP service. However this looks like the cable is genuinely encoded with IP using DOCSIS, end to end, making this more of an IPTV service and able to use the same code base as the IPTV Mediaroom.
It is also the first deployment of Mediaroom Anytime. This isn’t too surprising because in the US, it is still a point of debate (see elsewhere in this issue) over whether or not keeping a copy of a video file which is supposed to be broadcast, on a server for subsequent replaying, constitutes a breach of copyright. In some other countries, especially those which have not enacted new legislation based on the World Copyright Treaty, which itself is based on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, this is widely practiced.
The Anytime feature enables viewers to access previously aired shows from their EPG guide and to immediately restart programs which are currently showing, without prior recording.
‘This is an exciting moment for consumers in China and a significant milestone for Microsoft and the IPTV industry as Guangzhou Digital Media Group becomes the first deployment of the award-winning Mediaroom platform over a cable network,’ said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Connected TV Business Group at Microsoft.
The Guanghzhou service will include HD programming, and the ability bring web content to TV. The company has already engaged a number of local enterprises to develop interactive TV applications to complement TV including local news and government web sites and local sports as well as to send text messages via the TV. Customers will also be able to pay their phone bill or traffic tickets through the TV.
In the meantime Motorola used CES to launch a new version of its Storefront content management and convergence software which it says allows IPTV operators to create rich, personalized, on-demand experiences for subscribers as well as the ability to offer new bundled services which include common multimedia content via the TV, on the web and on a mobile devices.