The source adds that some of the Mediaroom people have moved on to other jobs within the Xbox team.
Such a move would seem consistent with the Xbox's ascent as a TV platform. Reuters recently reported that Microsoft is looking into ways of using the Xbox console to deliver pay-TV services.
More generally, there's been a suspicion that Mediaroom is losing rank at Microsoft. According to another source, who spoke with Light Reading at last month's TelcoTV conference, IPTV is a profitable business at Microsoft -- just not profitable enough.
Here's more about Mediaroom, including Microsoft's efforts to break into Tier 2 and 3 markets.
- Motorola Plays Host to Microsoft IPTV
- Cisco Spiking Its IPTV Middleware
- AlcaLu Courting Smaller Telcos With IPTV Play
- RGB Gets Mediaroom Stamp
- ETI Touts Quick Mediaroom Integration
- Mariner Monitors Microsoft Mediaroom
— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading
If Microsoft wants to be a serious player with Xbox as a media platform, they'd better allow fantastic and open software like XBMC to inhabit the environment.
Their media interface is lagging and horrible in comparison to the very nimble, feature-rich, flexible, and OPEN media manager from XBMC.
I've owned an xbox (and the upgrades) since inception, and the device was / is great for gaming, but as a media platform - it simply sucks.
You're better off buying an HTPC, run windows or linux, then install XBMC.
...this ends my geek-rant.