AlcaLu Supports Mediaroom

LONDON -- At IPTV World Forum in London today Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) took the next step in enriching and personalizing the TV experience with the announcement that its popular digital media suite of products now supports the recently announced multimedia application environment for the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform, called the Microsoft Mediaroom Presentation Framework.

Combining the power of Alcatel-Lucent's digital media suite of products – the Multimedia Content Manager and Interactive Media Manager – with Microsoft's IPTV platform, IPTV service providers can increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) and generate new revenue streams by offering personalized multimedia, on-demand offerings, and deliver compelling interactive advertising services.

"By streamlining service operation over IPTV platforms, Alcatel-Lucent enables service providers to concentrate on content retailing and maximizing their advertising space," said Rik Missault, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent's Digital Media and Advertising Division. "IPTV providers leveraging Alcatel-Lucent's solutions can infuse subscriber services with a rich mix of video, music, games, mobile, and interactivity to make the IPTV viewing experience more personal and compelling for subscribers. And, with our support of the latest version of the Microsoft Mediaroom platform, we are now extending this functionality to an even broader market."

Announced in January of this year, the Mediaroom Presentation Framework helps IPTV operators differentiate their services from those provided by cable and satellite operators by providing the tools to seamless blend on-screen broadcasting with content and services pulled from the Web.

Alcatel-Lucent's digital media suite further complements this value proposition. Through the use of pre-tested templates, operators can enable content providers and media agencies to quickly create new interactive TV applications such as voting, enhanced TV or interactive advertisement to augment the broadcast experience and to offer the TV viewer a real interactive and personal TV experience. These templates, enabling a write once - deploy many solution, give content providers and media agencies an abstraction layer so that they can focus on their core expertise and do not have to worry about the technical capabilities of a TV software platform.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)