Microsoft Enters the Mediaroom

The new software further extends personal content sharing via the TV and also from the PC. Users can share photos and music, presumably, much the same way as Windows Media Center or Xbox.

The question isn't if, but when Microsoft will make Xbox a vivid part of the so-called "better together" experience and possibly open up new telco revenue opportunities around games or online services.

For today, the Mediaroom rebranding is the bigger news here. The supporting Mediaroom Web site is excellent, by the way.

Overall, Microsoft sub-branding is getting better, with Silverlight, Surface and Zune as good examples of improvements. But Mediaroom, while a worthy effort, stumbles as a brand methinks—and for similar reasons as Windows Media Center: The use of "media."

Media is plural form of the word medium. My dictionary defines media "as the means of mass communication," specifically referring to "television, radio, newspapers and the Internet." Mediaroom connotation is news room, which surely isn't Microsoft's product objective.

Awhile back, I asked about a dozen people about the meaning of Windows XP Media Center Edition. All expressed confusion about the word media, which meant news media to them—somewhat surprising considering even older product Windows Media Player exposed them to the term in context of "digital media." None of the people questioned, in my unscientific survey, had heard of Windows Media Center beforehand.

Branding is tough, but Microsoft's branding efforts are consistently cockeyed. There simply doesn't appear to be enough thought put into connotations. That said, Mediaroom is a heck of a lot better than IPTV, which is next to nothing.

There's this Saturday Night Live skit from the 1970s that makes fun of the product name Smuckers. One name used in the skit is Mangled Baby Ducks, which I'd say is more memorable than IPTV. Heck, I remember it 30 years later.

Growing Pains
The Mediaroom announcement also highlighted improvements to the user guide and DVR (digital video recorder) function. Timing of the enhancements is interesting. Comcast has started replacing its own major Microsoft TV Foundation deployment, in the Seattle area, in a move to a new program guide. Meanwhile, Verizon, which used Microsoft's program guide for Fios TV, is in the process of switching to a homegrown guide.

In early marketing, Microsoft touted the simplicity and flexibility of its IPTV and TV Foundation program guides compared to those offered by cable operators. The two switches could be construed as being non-endorsements of Microsoft's efforts.

A few weeks ago, I asked Ed Graczyk, director of marketing and communications for Microsoft TV, about the program guide switches. He expressed no surprise at Comcast's move, in part because of TiVo coming in as DVR.

Regarding the Comcast program guide, he said: "Some companies want to do more development in-house."

The Microsoft-Verizon relationship will continue, even with the switch to a new Fios TV program guide.

"They developed this new program guide in-house," Graczyk said. "To do that, they're licensing quite a bit of our intellectual property. They will remain a big customer through the IP agreements."

Microsoft does expect AT&T to deploy its program guide. In fact, the Mediaroom Web site lists 17 telecos supporting the software and its new features.

Microsoft appears to be putting more emphasis on the IPTV market with Mediaroom rather than cable through its Microsoft TV Foundation software. The approach makes sense. Most cable carriers made hardware, software and infrastructure commitments long ago. In my neighborhood, Comcast uses Motorola cable boxes and supporting hardware. IPTV is newer, and Microsoft can get involved while carriers are building out infrastructure. Ground floor is the way to the penthouse.

In the United States, AT&T and Verizon are perhaps the two largest carriers rolling out IPTV networks. Verizon Fios is installed in my home. But AT&T and Verizon are going down different tracks. AT&T is deploying Microsoft software as part of a pure-IPTV play. Verizon, on the other hand, chose a hybrid approach for getting to market faster. Fios taps into the home's coaxial cable and uses—in my neighborhood, anyway—the same kind of Motorola cable boxes as the local Comcast service.

The first Fios iteration used Microsoft software, but not Mediaroom.

"We developed [a solution] for them at their request," Graczyk said. "It was kind of a one-off."

As for the future, Microsoft is banking on IPTV subscribers, which number Gartner predicts will reach 49 million—up from 3.2 million two years ago—by 2010.