Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) made its partnership with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) official today and will now offer Windows Live services at no additional cost to all of the telco's broadband subscribers. (See Qwest Launches Windows Live.)

Windows Live features include customizable news, weather, sports, and other gadgets, email, security, and video content.

With the Windows Live service, users will be able to search through and download both user generated and copyrighted content. When Qwest had first announced its plans to partner with Microsoft, it said it would be working on deals with content providers to make free and pay-per-view video content available on the service. Qwest could not be reached for comment today with regard to what progress has been made on these deals.

The video offering is part of Qwest's multi-pronged approach to delivering video content to consumers. (See Qwest's Quest for Video .) The company currently resells DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) service to its customers as its main video offering, and also offers a VDSL-based service called ChoiceTV that passes about 500,000 homes in parts of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Highlands Ranch, Colo.

Qwest is also deploying a fiber-to-the-node network like the one AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is using for U-Verse but has publicly admitted that it is carefully watching the U.S.'s largest telco to see if IPTV pans out as a viable video strategy before it commits to doing the same.

Meanwhile, the launching of its video partnership with Microsoft fits with Qwest's belief that the future of television lies with consumers watching whatever content they want whenever they want. "Increasingly what we're finding is people want to be able to watch content freely from platform to platform," said Qwest VP of Product Dan Yost to Light Reading back in April when describing the service's imminent launch.

— Raymond McConville, Reporter, Light Reading