Microsoft Extends Searches to VoD in Cable Software Update

The challenge: Microsoft must wait for Comcast and counterparts to deploy the newfangled technology. Customers need a way to pick from the thousands of hours of on-demand programming available from major cable operators, said analysts. But the U.S. cable industry has been focused on unveiling other services, from PVRs to VoIP and digital simulcasting. That has slowed adoption of other features, said analysts. Graczyk, Microsoft TV’s mktg. dir., largely agreed.

“You've seen quite a bit of change on cable priorities,” he told us Fri. “When you look at whether it’s Foundation or any software platform, on the software side, that’s just kind of a lower priority for a cable operator like Comcast today than it was a year ago.” The world’s largest cable operator, poised to become bigger by purchasing Adelphia systems, has said it’s focused on expanding VoIP availability. Its sales effort ran behind other MSOs’. CEO Brian Roberts has said all Comcast customers will be able to buy wireline phone service this year (CD Nov 7 p8). Comcast is the only major U.S. cable customer using Foundation Edition. Microsoft is also working with AT&T on IPTV.

Comcast will finish installing Foundation Edition in Wash. “in the next quarter,” said Graczyk. The firm will offer it to digital TV customers in at least one more market this year, he said. The difference the 2nd time around will be speed, predicted Graczyk: “This being the first deployment with the new software, I think they were a little bit cautious.” Comcast had no comment. The company has said it has the rights to use the software is as many as 5 million set top boxes (CD July 8 p6). Customers in Wash. with set tops using Foundation Edition can already search linear and HD programs by title, time, date and actor, said Graczyk. They can also find a show by looking up a word in the program description, he said.

VoD search is the next technical frontier for Microsoft as well as Gemstar-TV Guide, which has been testing an interactive program guide with similar features (CD Dec 3 p2). Some Comcast customers have been able to use an onscreen keyboard to search VoD programs and TV shows, Gemstar has said, estimating that such an IPG might be commercially available this year. The firm had no comment.

VoD is “a nightmare to navigate today,” said Graczyk, because “a ton” of content is available. Searching is “a huge selling point from a user experience perspective,” he said. Another feature likely to be popular with customers is the ability to find shows in HD, said Graczyk. Customers don’t seem satisfied with current search abilities, usually limited to finite data like program, and actor and genre names, said an analyst. “A lot of times, people want something to watch, but they don’t have a specific title in mind, a specific actor,” said Kagan’s Ian Olgeirson: “The granularity there is not that fulfilling.” Upcoming products from Microsoft and Gemstar “allow you to do these searches the way you want to,” said Olgeirson.

Weak search has hampered VoD, said Yankee Group analyst Adi Kishore: “There has been a lot of criticism of the user interfaces, and so a solution to that will obviously be valuable to both consumers and the operators who are deploying it.” VoD use has been “pretty impressive” in Philadelphia and Boston area Comcast systems, yet cable operators haven’t made a push for applications with more interactivity because they don’t see consumer demand, said Kishore.

A slow Foundation Edition rollout by Comcast doesn’t signal disinterest, said analysts. It’s also not a sign of technical glitches, they said. Graczyk confirmed there haven’t been significant software problems. There was a delay involving microchips for devices using Microsoft’s IPTV product, he said. AT&T’s decision last year to delay introducing IPTV, was “big news because there is a timeline they had set out. It is a companywide issue. They had made some commitments,” said Kishore. The $5 billion Project Lightspeed providing IPTV will pass 18 million homes by mid-2008, the firm said recently (CD Oct 26 p1). SBC, which changed its name to AT&T when it bought the long-distance provider, had said it would hit that target before 2008 (CD March 11/05 p13).

The upcoming version of Foundation Edition will have other new features, said Graczyk, declining to be more specific. “There’s a lot of work in [version] 1.9 around enabling capabilities on the one-way broadcast cable network that up till now have only been capable on a 2- way” network, he said. “We're hard at work.”