After the much vaunted issues that Swisscom, Singtel and BT have had with Microsoft's Media Room software, it's surprising to hear that Telefonica, one of the world's largest telcso, has chosen the technology for a global rollout.
Microsoft has ended up very marginalised in the media delivery business in recent years as the content industry threw itself behind Flash and then MP4 and others made a better hand at the IPTV middleware space. But it seems that DRM is again becoming a hot topic and Microsoft has this more sorted than most (although it has to be said that PlayReady is cumbersome and difficult and expensive to engage with).
Still, I am very surprised at this announcement and it may show that Microsoft hasn't totally given over its ambitions in the TV space quite yet.
Microsoft has ended up very marginalised in the media delivery business in recent years as the content industry threw itself behind Flash and then MP4 and others made a better hand at the IPTV middleware space. But it seems that DRM is again becoming a hot topic and Microsoft has this more sorted than most (although it has to be said that PlayReady is cumbersome and difficult and expensive to engage with).
Still, I am very surprised at this announcement and it may show that Microsoft hasn't totally given over its ambitions in the TV space quite yet.