Want to Watch Windows TV?

Microsoft faces competition in its drive to lead interactive TV, but first it needs an audience.

Lincoln Spector, special to PC World

The Microsoft TV platform is made up of four software packages, two of them designed for use with your TV set.

Consumers can use Microsoft TV Basic Digital, which will work on today's set-top boxes; it runs applications like chat and e-mail. The more powerful Microsoft TV Advanced will give the next generation of boxes more capabilities. The other two packages will only be used by your cable or satellite company. They include the Windows 2000-based back-end Microsoft TV Server, and the Microsoft TV Access Channel Server.

Who wants this MTV?

Will Microsoft TV change your life? Only if interactive TV takes off, and if Microsoft becomes a major player.

Industry observers have talked about interactive television for years, but its success is hardly a given. Current offerings, which let some subscribers play along with Jeopardy or research The Weather Channel, haven't caught fire.

Nor have gadgets like WebTV, which try to turn a television into a PC. Some reasons have more to do with furniture than technology. As Gartner Group analyst Chris LeTocq points out, "It's clear that a TV that's 12 feet away isn't the same [experience] as Windows."

Interactive TV needs the holy grail of consumer technology: the killer app. It's that one program that everyone suddenly needs. But no one's sure what that will be, or how it will appeal to people who already know what they want from that big box in the living room.

The winner will probably add to the existing television experience. One such product (which runs on Microsoft TV) is Chat on Television. It's by a company with the unlikely name of The Kiss Principle. Through it, you can chat with other viewers while watching a program, commenting on what you see. You can discuss the show publicly with every viewer running Chat on Television, or in private groups with friends. Public chat, like TV itself, is censored.

Real Competition Blossoms

Unlike with PCs, Microsoft is not calling the shots with interactive TV.

The Kiss Principle, for example, isn't betting entirely on Microsoft TV. Its programs also support a set-top operating system from OpenTV. Also on the way are Java TV from Sun and Liberate's TV Navigator.

But Redmond is working long and hard on this platform. And Microsoft has some real advantages: deep pockets, a reputation for setting standards, and a history of success.

Gartner Group's LeTocq believes that Microsoft sets "a target standard that developers can aim at."

Microsoft is delivering better technology, says Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith, chief executive officer of The Kiss Principle. Although his company is designing set-top software for several platforms, Ericsson-Zenith believes Microsoft TV is the "stronger platform for developing real applications. The others are fine if you just want to do the simple stuff."

But the contest isn't over yet. In this market, at least, there's still plenty of competition. And the market itself still needs to be found.