Ibexx & All, Microsoft Moves To Control Video Streaming
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Microsoft Moves To Control Video Streaming
(08/05/97; 1:00 p.m. EDT)
By Kora McNaughton, TechInvestor
In a move to guarantee its place in the digital video food chain, Microsoft announced Tuesday a series of initiatives to accelerate the adoption of digital video technology both for broadcast and on the PC, including its acquisition of media streaming startup VXtreme.
VXtreme, a two-year-old, privately held company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., had previously been funded by Cisco Systems, Informix and SoftBank Ventures.
Just two weeks ago, Microsoft agreed to license video technology from Progressive Networks, a competitor of Vxtreme, and also acquired a 10 percent interest in Progressive.
In a statement Tuesday, Microsoft called the Progressive and VXtreme deals "complementary," saying it has "gained agreement from the industry's leading companies to work together to define future standards based on Microsoft's Active Streaming Format (ASF) specifications."
Both companies' technologies will be integrated with Microsoft's NetShow videoconferencing product.
"We need several ingredients for a strong platform," Paul Maritz, Microsoft vice president of platforms and applications said in a conference call. "We support all important standards in the industry." However, Tuesday's announcements appear to be more of an attempt by Microsoft to fuse disparate technologies into a common standard for media streaming that Microsoft not only supports but to some extent controls.
Financial details about the two deals were not disclosed.
In addition, Microsoft said it would target video streaming and videoconferencing via cable and telephone networks through an agreement with VDOnet of Cambridge, Mass., which will build products based on Microsoft's NetShow server. Microsoft released version 2.0 of NetShow Tuesday as well.
Microsoft has signed other agreements with Internet broadcaster AudioNet and Vivo Software, a maker of audio and video tools.
"Our goal is to enable everybody-media companies, businesses and consumers-to receive, originate and interact with these next-generation broadcasts," Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said in a statement issued by the company. Microsoft is also integrating media technologies into its Windows and BackOffice platforms, and will include the client software for streaming with its Web browser, Internet Explorer.
The client will also be available to Netscape Navigator and Communicator users, who will have to download the software from Microsoft's site.
The digital video initiatives are part of Microsoft's push to extend its influence far beyond the PC desktop operating system as profits in that business decline. Monday the software company completed its $425 million acquisition of WebTV Networks, which provides Internet access via regular television sets, and earlier this year, Microsoft invested $1 billion in cable network Comcast.
In related news, Progressive Networks and long-distance phone company MCI Communications said they are launching an "Internet broadcast network," called RealNetwork, that uses Progressive's multicasting technology to provide live and on-demand audio and video to tens of thousands of users simultaneously.
So far, ABC News, Atlantic Records, ESPN, Home & Garden Television and the Seattle Mariners have agreed to broadcast their content on RealNetwork.
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