LAS VEGAS -- TelcoTV 2010 -- Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is exiting the IPTV middleware business in the US and putting in place a conversion path to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mediaroom for its existing customers, multiple sources said here at the show.

Sources on the floor said several customers that use Cisco's ISDP (IPTV Services Delivery Platform) were notified recently that the company intends to freeze the feature set of the middleware (which also includes the base navigation guide and other TV apps) but will continue to support it through 2014.

Before that date, Cisco, they said, is giving those customers (there's believed to be about 20 or so of them) a way to "reflash" Cisco-made IPTV boxes to support Mediaroom.

And that sounds all well and good, unless you're an ISDP customer that doesn't want anything to do with Mediaroom. In those cases, telcos were banging on the booths of other set-top and middleware vendors to help them find out what options they have that don't lock them into Mediaroom.

Cisco, meanwhile, is keeping those specific plans between itself and its customers for the moment, but, reading between the lines, there appears to be something afoot.

In response to questions about the future of ISDP, a company spokeswoman emailed that "we aren't announcing any changes to our IPTV platform. We continue to refresh our product portfolio as part of our long term IPTV R&D investment strategy."

Cisco, she added, intends to share updates on its IPTV product portfolio "in early 2011."

Sources familiar with the ISDP exit plan didn't specifically know why Cisco was getting ready to jettison the ISDP product, but speculated that it's because Cisco's been slow to add new features like multi-room DVR and that the company was not interested in plowing more money into product development. They add that Cisco probably decided it made more sense now to cut further R&D on that product and instead move it all over to the more feature-rich Mediaroom platform.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable