Microsoft & CableLabs Strike PC-Cable Deal

Microsoft & CableLabs Strike PC-Cable Deal

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

November 16, 2005

1 Min Read
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Eager to watch premium and digital cable programming on your home or office computer? Well, Microsoft and CableLabs brought that golden moment a lot closer earlier today when they announced a deal to bring non-analog cable programming straight to the PC, starting next fall. The historic deal will allow future users of computers equipped with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center operating system to view premium, digital and HDTV programming without cable set-top boxes. Like today's early digital-cable-ready TV sets, which also don't need separate set-top boxes, the next-generation Media Center PCs will just require removable CableCARD security modules to show the programs. Microsoft and CableLabs executives said the pact will enable computer manufacturers to produce digital-cable-ready PCs in time for next fall's holiday shopping season. Citing strong market demand, Microsoft officials, who have sold more than 4 million Media Center software licenses, said they have already started talking to their major computer hardware vendors about incorporating the cable-ready features into their new PCs.

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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