BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 11, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced a collaboration with Telecom Italia focused on the use of Microsoft PlayReady technology as the content access solution for use in mobile entertainment value-added services (VAS) spanning the delivery of music, video and gaming content. The major objective of the collaboration is around the evaluation of PlayReady technology and its capabilities to support a compelling user experience for Telecom Italia’s mobile customers in Italy. The ultimate goal is to enable delivery of a range of entertainment content types, in a very easy-to-use way, to one of the most advanced mobile markets in the world.
Telecom Italia will also take advantage of the ability of PlayReady to efficiently protect and deliver content both over the air to mobile handsets and through the Internet, to enable content from these services to be delivered and played back on other devices including Windows-based PCs.
“Thanks to this cooperation with Microsoft around the PlayReady content access technology, we will confirm our leadership position as one of the most innovative mobile operators, and evaluate how to enhance and improve our services with new features, enabling our customers to enjoy seamless entertainment experiences — whether on their mobile handset or using in-home devices,” said Riccardo Jelmini, Telecom Italia executive vice president of Domestic Mobile Value-Added Services. “Thanks to PlayReady’s support for many content types, and a wide range of business models, we are confident that the services we offer directly or through our partners can continue to be easily enhanced to meet the evolving needs of our customers in future years.”
“Telecom Italia is a recognized innovator and leading mobile operator through its TIM mobile brand, and our collaboration presents a great opportunity to explore the unique potential of PlayReady to enable next-generation content services,” said Chadd Knowlton, general manager of the Content Access and Protection group at Microsoft. “Our work with Telecom Italia spans a range of content types and has a specific focus on employing PlayReady’s new features to enhance the usability of the mobile entertainment experience for consumers.”
Microsoft PlayReady is designed for digital entertainment services, devices and applications, with a focus on meeting the needs of mobile operators, service providers and device manufacturers. The technology supports a range of business models that can be applied to almost any type of digital content (music, video, games, ringtones, images and more) and a wide range of audio and video formats (including AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+, H.264, Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV)). PlayReady also provides features, such as service domains and embedded licenses, specifically designed to make it easy for consumers to enjoy content on all their registered devices, and back up their content just as easily as they back up any other file. Microsoft released the PlayReady Client Porting Kit for mobile devices in August 2007, and expects the first services using PlayReady technology to appear in the second half of 2008.
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