CES: Microsoft does away with the DVR, partners with Verizon for search

LAS VEGAS – In Microsoft’s first keynote since the retirement of chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show at his Wednesday evening keynote address by unveiling the Windows 7 Beta, announcing a search partnership with Verizon Wireless and adding new features to its Mediaroom platform that could make the digital video recorder a thing of the past.

Microsoft now reaches 2.5 million subscriber households worldwide, up from the 2 million announced at TelcoTV, and up 1.5 million from CES last year. Microsoft Mediaroom's director of outbound marketing Paula Reinman classified 2008 as the year that television evolved to be more than just a one-way broadcast experience. At the beginning of the year, consumers might have indicated that the TV was the only device not connected to the network. Now it is becoming the third connected screen through Mediaroom-enabled features on services like AT&T’s U-Verse U-Bar, total-home DVR and Fantasy Football application. These kinds of apps and connectivity set the stage for a host of new features Microsoft will introduce to connect and personalize its Mediaroom presentation framework in 2009, she said.

“We like the ramp, and we like the reason for the ramp,” Reinman said. “That includes not only new and growing deployments from our customer base, but it includes really a fundamental shift in the way consumers are thinking about accessing and purchasing TV services, really looking for more connected, personalized services.”

Most significant were a set of new capabilities for its Mediaroom customers deploying IPTV that will let consumers bypass the DVR and still watch TV shows anytime they want. Called Mediaroom Anytime, service providers can offer their customers the ability to watch a TV show at any time – hopefully keeping them from going online for the content. Through Restart Anytime, consumers can view a show from the beginning regardless of when they started, what channel they were on and whether the TV was on or off. With the Live Anytime feature, users can view any previously aired shows even if they forgot to record them. And through Download Anytime, areas with lower bandwidth infrastructure can still take advantage of the download and play capabilities of Mediaroom.

The service has already shipped to Microsoft’s customers, including AT&T in the United States, and the first announced trials will come from Singtel in Singapore, which will test the capabilities with the intent to launch the services this year. The business model is up to the individual service provider, but the features could have the ability to disrupt the subscription DVR model popular today.