Microsoft Launches New Program to Help IPTV Operators Migrate to Mediaroom From First-Generation Platforms

Friday, September 12th, 2008
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Microsoft Mediaroom Migration Program provides guidelines and solutions for service providers considering upgrading their IPTV platforms

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) has launched a new program to ease the transition for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service providers using other platforms to migrate to its solution. Called Microsoft Mediaroom Migration Program and unveiled at the IBC2008 conference, the program provides guidelines and solutions for service providers considering upgrading their IPTV platform. The Microsoft Mediaroom Migration Program delivers a structured assessment process and analytical tools for migration, including business and technical workshops to review set-top-box portability, network compatibility and audio-visual head-end interoperability. The program also includes risk-benefit tools to compare lifetime customer value and build the business case for executive management.

Ben Huang, director of product management for Microsoft Mediaroom, said, “As the IPTV market matures, we’re seeing interest from operators on first-generation platforms and homegrown solutions to migrate to Microsoft Mediaroom. These service providers need to add high-definition and advanced digital video recording (DVR) and video-on-demand features that are now fundamental to any competitive TV offering, and they want to remain competitive by being able to easily deploy advanced interactive applications. We are currently engaged in assessing migration opportunities with a number of customers and have been approached by many more. Platform migrations are complex, so this program has been developed to assist with business and technical planning, and reduce the cost and pain of migration.”

Ben Keen, chief analyst at Screen Digest, said, “There are now over 250 IPTV operators worldwide, and we expect global IPTV subscriber growth to be nearly 70 percent this year; by comparison, cable and satellite pay-TV subscriber growth will be single-digit. To maintain this growth, operators must retain a competitive edge by utilizing a technology platform that allows them to continue offering innovative new services. Screen Digest estimates that one in seven active IPTV set-top boxes worldwide will be running Microsoft Mediaroom by the end of 2008.”

The three key phases of the Microsoft Mediaroom Migration Program aim to take a service provider from initial consideration to full migration of the platform, as follows:

  • Phase 1 — Planning scenarios around engineering and business metrics, assessment of lifetime value of the customer, marketing research kit, usability testing.
  • Phase 2 — Trial program creation, including infrastructure and set-top box migration and migration communications planning.
  • Phase 3 — Delivery of training and workshops, operational readiness planning for commercial deployment, platform migration and eventual legacy decommissioning. This involves review of the architecture including servers, set-top boxes, encoder feeds and video-on-demand assets.