In an effort to kick start the digital TV market, Microsoft Corp. Monday
said it was offering developers the chance to test enhanced content on
Motorola Inc. set-top boxes through a new TV Content Builder Initiative
(CBI).
Announced at the National Association of Television Program Executives
(NATPE) 2001 Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., the strategy is aimed to push
the growth of enhanced TV by allowing developers to test the products before
they hit the consumer market. Financial terms were not made public.
However, the consumers aren’t the only people the software giant had in
mind.
Microsoft also said the new CBI would help its own developers to create
solutions for its set-top box platform. In turn, Motorola’s high-tech
DCT-5000+ will receive countless exposure by the developers who participate
in CBI.
The Motorola DCT-5000+ advanced set-top box will enable CBI participants to
view and assess their programming in the same way that consumers will
experience it when Microsoft TV-powered broadband services are deployed by
cable, terrestrial and satellite TV system operators.
And, as is usually the case when Microsoft launches a new program, the giant
has secured a slew of participants for CBI.
Perhaps the most important are four partnerships that run the gamut of
television entertainment: Discovery Science Channel, MacNeil/Lehrer
Productions and PushyBroad, Scripps and Beyond Z Interactive Media and DTN
Weather Services.
Joining Microsoft and the production companies will be AGENCY.COM, Alliance
Atlantis Communications Inc., ARTiFACT, Cinema Entertainment Group, Cylo,
E!Networks, FolksNetwork Inc., InfoSpace, Intellocity, MerlinTV.com, MetaTV
Inc., Mixed Signals Technologies, Razorfish, RespondTV, Roundpeg.com, Sony
Pictures Digital Entertainment, Tractor, Traffic 411, Screamingly Different
Entertainment, SpinTV, Steeplechase Media Inc. and The Weather Channel.
Alan Yates, vice president of sales and marketing at Microsoft TV, said
industrialists should not underestimate the importance of CBI.
“…Companies joining the program have access to the resources and materials
they need to deploy enhanced TV programming and services,” Yates said. “The
CBI and the Motorola system show developers how their enhanced TV content
performs on a real broadband system before it’s deployed.”
Those interested in joining the Content Builder Initiative may refer to
Microsoft’s Content
Builder Program.
Or, for a demo of what Microsoft does with digital TV, Microsoft will show
demo enhanced TV with some of the CBI participants during NATPE at the
Microsoft TV suite on Wednesday, Jan. 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
