Transition From Broadcast to Connected TV Gathers Momentum as Microsoft Mediaroom-Powered Services Surpasses 2 Million Subscribers

Microsoft Mediaroom hits another subscriber milestone as consumers embrace the adoption of connected TV services

ANAHEIM, Calif. — In less than a year, subscribers to TV services powered by the Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mediaroom Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and multimedia software platform have more than doubled, reaching over 2 million subscriber homes and powering services on nearly 4 million set-top boxes worldwide. In the past quarter alone, Mediaroom customers have connected 500,000 new subscribers across the globe.

The accelerated growth rate comes as customers begin to maximize the functionality of the Mediaroom platform to differentiate their service offering with features such as personalized weather and sports information, the freedom to play back standard-definition and high-definition recorded programs on any connected TV in the home, or the ability to set the digital video recorder (DVR) remotely via a PC or mobile device.

AT&T Inc. is one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing Mediaroom customers with 781,000 AT&T U-verse(SM) subscribers as of the end of the third quarter. In September, it launched AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR using Mediaroom DVR Anywhere technology, and has plans to roll out the service to its entire U-verse footprint by the end of the year.

“AT&T U-verse TV delivers a new and exciting consumer experience that gives AT&T the edge to compete and grow market share in a highly competitive TV market,” said G.W. Shaw, AT&T executive director of U-verse marketing. “Take Total Home DVR, for example. Because of our flexible software platform, we were able to download this powerful new feature directly to consumers’ homes overnight and to further differentiate versus cable.”

The commercial rollout of advanced Mediaroom features is raising the bar for all TV services, as recognized by recent industry awards. In addition, monitoring solutions specialist Witbe last month found Microsoft Mediaroom-powered services to have the fastest channel changing speeds of any TV services tested globally.

“The growing momentum and differentiation of Mediaroom-based services signals consumer demand for TV experiences beyond traditional cable and satellite offerings,” said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Connected TV Division for Microsoft. “While the technology can be intricate, the formula is simple — deliver quality content experiences that engage viewers in new, more impactful and easy-to-use ways. Powerful software plus a two-way, connected environment are now fundamental components to success in the new era of TV services.”

Foundations for Continued Growth

To ensure cost-effective deployment and support for the Mediaroom platform, Microsoft has established an ecosystem of qualified technology and systems integration partners. This partner ecosystem has continued to evolve as the number and scale of Mediaroom deployments has increased. Recent updates to the partner ecosystem include the qualification by the Microsoft Mediaroom Interoperability and Qualification Lab of the Harmonic Inc. ProStream 2000 digital video splicer and the Envivio Inc. 4Caster C4 three-screen multichannel, multiprofile encoder.