I recently did a couple of guest posts for the last100 blog that WindowsMediaBlog.com readers may be interested in. In part one, I looked at the history of Microsoft’s television-related products and services. In part two, I took a closer look at what the company offers today, and speculated on some of the things that we can expect in the future.

I had fun writing the two posts, and I’d love to know what you think!

According to a report published at MediaGuardian.co.uk (registration required) last Tuesday, British Sky Broadcasting is in talks with Microsoft to make its proposed pay-TV service available to computer users via Windows Media Center. BSkyB COO Mike Darcey made it clear that his company sees this as the wave of the future:

“The delivery of premium services to Media Centre PCs in this way will place the UK’s DTT platform at the forefront of innovation and at the centre of the convergence of the TV and PC industries.”

If such a deal could be struck between the companies, it would definitely strengthen the case for BSkyB’s proposal as it would allow customers to subscribe to pay-TV without having to use a set-top box.

It would also be a good thing for Windows Media Center users in Britain, who likely would appreciate the ability to keep their PC as the “natural epicentre of their entertainment world” as Darcey put it.

If approved, BSkyB’s service could be launched early next year.

Source: Ian Dixon

I think Microsoft’s television strategy is pretty clear: throw as many ideas and products out there as you can and see what sticks. With MSN TV, Mediaroom, Windows Media Centre, and a number of other products, you’d think Microsoft would be content to improve what they already have. But no, today they announced LiveStation, a P2P live television broadcasting application built using Silverlight.

The project is a joint venture between Microsoft Research and UK-based Skinkers. Don Dodge has more on the technology behind LiveStation:

LiveStation is built on two research technologies, Pastry and SplitStream, from Microsoft’s Cambridge Research Lab. Pastry is a type of P2P system called a ‘distributed hash table,’ which makes it easier for computers to find and store information, and to organize themselves for collaborative tasks. Splitstream is an application built on top of Pastry which allows real-time streams such as live video to be robustly distributed peer-to-peer.

TechCrunch wrote about LiveStation today too:

And while it is certainly an excellent demonstration of the flexibility of Silverlight, its not even close to being productized and launched. For now, consider it little more than a pretty video.

True enough. You can watch that video here. LiveStation is currently in closed beta. I entered my email at the beta site, so hopefully I’ll get an invite soon.

For more on this story, check out TechMeme.

UPDATE: Long Zheng makes the very good point that
LiveStation isn’t really a Microsoft product.