ZUrich, Switzerland, and REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 4, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. and Swisscom/Bluewin today announced their intention to work together to test and deploy television services based on newly announced Internet Protocol television (IPTV) technology being developed by Microsoft®
TV. As the premier broadband services provider to Swisscom, Switzerland’s leading telecommunications company, Bluewin plans to be one of the first companies in Europe and among the first in the world to conduct a trial of pay-TV services over an IP broadband network using IPTV technology being developed by Microsoft TV. Bluewin and Microsoft will jointly explore delivery of engaging, high-quality digital TV programming and video over Swisscom’s asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband network through the use of Microsoft TV IPTV technology. Through this initiative, Bluewin plans to provide an interactive new way for subscribers to receive the information and entertainment they want, where and when they want it.
“We’re pleased to be working with Microsoft TV to jointly test new IPTV solutions,” said Adrian Bult, CEO of Swisscom Fixnet, which controls the subsidiary Bluewin. “IPTV holds the promise of offering richer TV services to our customers, which will ultimately provide them with more choice and better control over their TV experience. Microsoft TV’s end-to-end solution will enable us to more easily and efficiently begin testing these new services. Bluewin is at the forefront of ushering the revolution into Switzerland.”
Microsoft TV’s planned IPTV solution will combine the state-of-the art quality and compression efficiency of Microsoft Windows Media®
9 Series, which has approximately three times the efficiency of MPEG-2 and twice that of MPEG-4, providing network operators substantial bandwidth savings in the delivery of live and on-demand services in standard and high-definition formats. The Microsoft TV IPTV solution is designed to support standard and high-definition channels, on-demand programming and interactive program guides, as well as future service offerings that leverage two-way, interactive platforms.
“Microsoft TV’s IPTV solution can deliver high-quality, cost-efficient, next-generation media and viewer experiences,” said Moshe Lichtman, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV Division at Microsoft. “We look forward to helping Bluewin maximize the value of its network and programming service. Bluewin is well-positioned as one of Europe’s leading broadband service providers to kick off our new IPTV effort and transform the market for advanced video services.”
About Bluewin
Bluewin counts more than 890,000 active access customers (June 2003), 200,000 of which are broadband customers (September 2003), and 100 million page views per month. The 100-percent Swisscom subsidiary has been offering a comprehensive Internet service for private and small office/home office customers for over seven years.
About the Microsoft TV Platform
Microsoft TV is a family of standards-based client and server software products and related developer tools that help network operators create digital TV services which delight subscribers and derive more value from digital TV investments. Microsoft TV enables the delivery of new services such as video on demand, on-demand storefronts, interactive program guides, managed content services, digital video recording, enhanced programming, e-mail, instant messaging and more across a full range of set-top boxes and TV devices. More information about Microsoft TV can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/tv/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
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