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Verizon to use Microsoft for TV service
By Stephen Lawson

Verizon Communications Inc. Friday became the latest service provider to choose Microsoft Corp. software for an advanced TV service, following in the footsteps of SBC Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp.

Verizon will use the Microsoft TV platform for its Fios TV service, which it plans to launch later this year, said Ed Graczyk, director of marketing and communications for the Microsoft TV division.

Microsoft TV supports digital video recording, video on demand and an interactive program guide that Verizon can customize for its own subscribers. The software, used along with Motorola Inc. set-top boxes, will form the foundation of a high-definition TV service that will run over Verizon's emerging fiber-to-the-home network, he said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For Verizon, Microsoft will provide a special implementation of Microsoft TV that can support both QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), the transmission system commonly used in cable networks, and IP (Internet Protocol) transmission, said Graczyk. Verizon plans to start out using QAM for its TV service and migrate to IPTV, he said.

New TV platforms, especially IPTV, from Microsoft and other vendors are expected to transform the viewing experience with more channels, interactivity and other features. For example, using Microsoft TV, Verizon could send targeted commercials to different types of viewers and prevent digital video recorders from recording rerun episodes of a TV series, according to Graczyk.

Microsoft's IPTV technology isn't even done yet -- the first commercial deployment will come later this year, Graczyk said -- but several service providers worldwide have embraced the company's TV software. Last year Comcast Corp. announced it would use Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7, a cable-network platform, for services to at least 5 million of its subscribers, and SBC announced a US$400 million deal to use the Microsoft TV software for an IPTV service coming later this year.

Outside the U.S., Microsoft's TV customers now include Bell Canada International Inc., Swisscom AG, Telecom Italia SpA and India's Reliance Infocomm Ltd.

Posted January 31, 2005 04:49 PM |