Microsoft News Tracker

A number of players in the IPTV market got together to form a standards group, but some big names were noticeably missing:

Companies that provide television over internet protocol technology joined forces on Monday to set a single global standard, so that all systems would work together.

The Open IPTV Forum is backed by companies including Ericsson, Matsushita’s Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony, AT&T, Telecom Italia and France Telecom.

Not on the starting list are Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft, the market leaders and alliance partners in IPTV networks and software.

Filmmakers and TV production companies were not on the list either, but the forum said everyone could join.
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The nine founding companies said they want results fast and will hammer out technology requirements by September and a first set of technology specifications by year-end.

Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent are busy suing each other over patents of course, but that doesn’t seem to keep them from forging ahead in IPTV.

Speaking of the patent lawsuits, I see that Microsoft has now got the U.S. International Trade Commission on Alcatel-Lucent’s back. You’d think that such great pals could work out a deal.