In the keynote address, Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president of the entertainment and devices division, reminded attendees that creating the connected home is not a “hobby” for Microsoft. Mediaroom is also opening up its platform to third parties that want to create new TV applications and multimedia services. Partnerships announced at CES include ChoiceStream, emuse, ES3, Showtime Networks and Turner Broadcasting. According to Bach, these new applications will give consumers a richer viewing experience. As examples, Bach cited that through the Turner partnership, NASCAR fans will be able to see the sites and sound of the racetrack from the driver’s perspective. Similarly, politicos can follow the elections much closer by accessing statistics, videos and news of the election while watching the debates and coverage.

While not necessarily interactive, these applications will make the TV experience much more personalized and bring the TV into the connected home environment, from which it has typically been left out, Heckart said.

“The TV is the only device that has been completely left out of the networking revolution,” she said. “It continues to be this island. It is not connected to anything else. If your PC didn’t connect to the Internet, it wouldn’t be a very valuable device to you anymore, so the TV today is where the PC was back in 1985. The focus really has to be in continuing to invest in making the TV part of an overall connected entertainment experience and bringing it into the 21^st century since it has been stuck in the past until now.”

To augment its success in IPTV, Microsoft also announced at CES that it is adding chipmaker Broadcom to its IPTV arsenal, which already includes Sigma, to enable Mediaroom client software to operate on next-generation STBs. Using the Broadcom BCM7405 system on a chip, service providers and original equipment manufacturers will be able to support IPTV features including DVR anywhere, improved user interfaces, and photo and music content sharing – features Gates said are gaining in popularity amongst customers.

“The second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people and being user-centric,” Gates said in his keynote address. “Microsoft will deliver platforms that let people develop applications….People for the first time are realizing that they can build content that is unique.”