TV partnerships key to Vista's Windows Media Center
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 8:13 PM ET
CBC News
Microsoft is hoping a series of deals with entertainment and news providers will help turn television watchers into digital consumers.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Sunday that he has planned a group of products he hopes will encourage the widespread adoption of connected homes, announcing a series of partnerships with content providers for Vista's Windows Media Center.
Bill Gates, shown in an undated photo, announced a series of partnerships with content providers for Vista's Windows Media Center on Sunday.
(Associated Press)
The new deals with NASCAR, Fox Sports, Nickelodeon and Showtime will deliver specialized content — most of which will be free — through Windows Media Center.
In the Fox Sports deal, users may view Fox Sports' SportsLounge, which will offer live TV, sports score "weather crawls," scheduled recordings and, eventually, fantasy sports player tracking.
The quality of the video feed in a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show appeared low, but Fox VP of programming and product development Edward Burnell told CBC News Online that was because the demonstration was getting the video from the website instead of the network itself.
"We're making adjustments all along the way and we will have a feed for the media centre," said Burnell on Tuesday. "It will switch over from the current feed and it will be seamless."
Burnell said the service would be available free to owners of Vista. With partners like Fox Sports and NASCAR, Microsoft is reaching out to a more couch-bound audience that may not have clicked onto YouTube or other internet video sites.
Gates said on Sunday the issue for users was the lack of quality video.
"Getting the video sources into the PC has been a limiting factor," Gates said. "We're making progress making the video content easily accessible on the PC."
Vista, the first major Windows upgrade since Windows XP launched in 2001, was made available on Nov. 30, 2006, to businesses that buy Windows licences in bulk. Consumers generally won't be able to get Vista until Jan. 30.
The new operating feature puts a major emphasis on tighter security.
It also features a revamped media player and web browser, better backup capabilities and a new interface that Microsoft says makes the desktop easier for people to use and manage.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
Top News Headlines
- Greece passes new austerity deal amid rioting
- Greek lawmakers have approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the debt-crippled nation from bankruptcy, after riots in Athens and other cities left stores looted and burned and more than 120 people hurt. more »
- Quebec town 'heartbroken' after killing of woman, sisters
- A small Quebec town is in mourning Sunday after a Quebec man was charged with killing his nieces and his mother, who were found dead in their family home. more »
- Houston autopsy results withheld by police
- Whitney Houston was found in a hotel bathtub but it'll take weeks to determine precisely how she died, a Los Angeles coroner's official says. more »
- Musicians who died before their time
- The growing list of musicians who have died young. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- Ancient Antarctic lake may harbour microbial life
- If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake 3.2 kilometres beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places, and it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth. more »
- B.C. killer whale habitat protection ruled a legal duty
- The federal minister of fisheries has no discretion when it comes to protecting the critical habitat of B.C.'s southern resident killer whales, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. more »
- Game developer seeks $400K, makes $1M in a day
- Videogame studio Double Fine went on the website Kickstarter to raise $400K US in a month to develop a new game. They reached that target in a matter of hours. more »
- McGill asbestos study review criticized
- A group of anti-asbestos activists and scientists are criticizing McGill University's plans for an internal review of a major asbestos research study that has been called into question. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Glacier Discovery Walk: Will the visitor centre enhance the view? Feb. 10, 2012 3:17 PM Environment minister Peter Kent has announced the construction of a new Glacier Discovery Walk and visitor centre on the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park. It raises the issue of how to balance commercial development in our National Parks against the preservation of the last refuges of wilderness.
Quirks & Quarks
- February 11: Inside the Mind of a Neandertal Feb. 10, 2012 4:01 PM Can we get inside the mind of a species that's been dead for 30,000 years? A new book, How to Think Like a Neanderthal, suggests we can. The authors reconstruct a creature like us in many ways, but with important differences.
Latest Features
- Pop queen Whitney Houston dies at 48
- Houston autopsy results withheld by police
- Greece passes new austerity deal amid rioting
- Carleton University confirms death of student
- Adele takes 4 Grammys
- Quebec town 'heartbroken' after killing of woman, sisters
- Ultimate Tazer Ball combines shock and soccer
- Manitoba man dies after falling off moving SUV
- Adults-only trade show cancelled in B.C. Bible belt
