September 27, 2007
By Louise Story
Tags: Microsoft, Online advertising, video Microsoft TVJoe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s eHome Division, demonstrates Extenders for Windows.
Microsoft is expected to announce a new Internet TV system that works on televisions and computers at the Digital Life Conference today. The system will include more than 100 hours of content from programs like Fox Sports and MSNBC that are also shown on MSN.
The system will be available for free to all Windows Vista Home Premium Edition and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition users. Consumers can connect the content to their television sets by using a XBox system or a new Media Center Extender device that Microsoft will also announce today. Most consumers will find the new system through a software update sent to their computers this week. The update allows video to be shown full–screen, for example, without looking grainy.
YuMe, a company based in Redwood City, Calif., will sell and program the advertising across the video system. YuMe specializes in delivering video ads onto new technology devices and already serves ads for companies like BitTorrent and Azureus. YuMe released its role in the Microsoft announcement in a release this morning.
Microsoft has hired YuMe to run a six month test to compare user engagement levels during videos across the different devices. The goal is to see whether viewers are more engaged watching video on their computers or TV sets and whether it makes a difference if they have connected through an XBox. In November, YuMe will add interactive advertisements to the video and measure how much viewers fast–foward, click on ads, watch full–length videos and so on.
Among the questions to be studied are whether consumers prefer the lean–back experience of television sets or the lean–in experience of computers when watching long–form content, said Jayant Kadambi, chief executive of YuMe.
Microsoft has been trying to gain more share in online advertising as consumer brand companies shift their ad budgets online. Microsoft is building a system to deliver ads to people across many devices – computers, video consoles and televisions – with an eye to sending the right ad to the right person at the right time.