MS UltimateTV not so ultimate?

By Jon Newton, p2pnet.net (more articles from this author) 2002-01-30

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Music Industry News - as it happens
Source: Mi2N/MusicDish - January 30, 2001

Microsoft is "restructuring" its UltimateTV group, cutting one-third of 500 associated jobs. Launched about a year ago, UltimateTV offers digital video recording and Web surfing via DirecTV's satellite television network. Microsoft said the service will still be available but UltimateTV will no longer be a part of the company's TV division. Instead, it'll be folded into the new television services group in Microsoft's MSN division.

According to Yankee Group analyst Aditya Kishore, pickup rates for UltimateTV, like all digital video recording services, have not been as high as many in the industry had anticipated they would be, says a January 22 ZDnet report, continuing, "Kishore noted, however, that the reassignment of UltimateTV workers to Xbox could mean that Microsoft wants to add digital video recording (DVR) to the game console. 'It will be interesting to see what will happen with UltimateTV and Xbox. We could see the fruition of the Trojan horse idea to get into consumers' homes,' Kishore said. 'Thus far, it has been difficult to sell DVR as a standalone product, but combining it with the popular Xbox could change that'." The story also had Microsoft spokeswoman Erin Brewer saying, "We're reorganizing UltimateTV to better align it with our entertainment and television efforts".

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