Microsoft woos cable industry

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp. has announced its plans of selling new software tools to the cable industry, in another attempt to appeal to a sector that in the past has kept its distance. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to unveil the details of a new software package, called Microsoft TV Foundation, at the annual cable industry meeting, the National Show in Chicago.

The world's largest software company is hoping to again try to gain a stronger foothold in the cable industry after fits and starts over the past several years.

Microsoft invested $5 billion in AT&T Broadband in 1999. As part of its investment, it was planning to load its software into as many as 10 million next-generation cable boxes on AT&T's systems.

But after a trial deployment of several hundred thousands of the boxes, AT&T decided not to deploy it to its millions of customers nationwide. The software required costly set-top boxes and when the markets turned sour in 2001, cable operators were reluctant to spend more money on expensive equipment, said analysts.

"It has been a rough start working with cable industry," said Sean Badding, a senior analyst at Carmel Group, of Microsoft's experience. The company said its new software tools would make easier the process of designing on-screen interactive programming guides. Interactive guides are television program menus that let users click on titles to view a channel.

The software is also designed to run on lower-priced cable boxes. It is also designed to eventually run on set-top boxes manufactured by different companies, which is not possible today, said analysts. Until now, software was written specifically for different branded cable set-top boxes, said analysts.

"There's no question Microsoft wants to become the standard in the industry," said Badding. "They want to dominate the cable industry."






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