Microsoft to Launch Full-Episode Online Programming Service, "MSN Video Player," in the UK

According to reports from the UK that were breaking just as [itvt] went to press, Microsoft is set to launch a new MSN Video Player service in that country that will feature free, full-length programming. At launch, around 60 titles--including "Hustle," "League of Gentlemen," "Peep Show," "Shameless" and "The Young Ones"--totaling around 300 hours of programming will be available on the browser-based service, thanks to new deals that Microsoft has signed with BBC Worldwide and All3Media. The service, which is expected to beta-launch over the next week (a full launch, with a significantly expanded programming slate, is expected to take place in around six months, assuming that the beta version of the service proves successful) and which will be geo-restricted to UK users, will be monetized by advertising, including pre-rolls as well as commercial breaks: according to a report in The Times, the commercial breaks will only run in programs that are longer than an hour. The Times also reports that the service will initially be based on Flash (in addition to Windows Media Player), rather than on Microsoft's own Silverlight technology, but that it will switch to Silverlight "at full launch."

The Microsoft executive responsible for the new service is Ashley Highfield, Microsoft UK's managing director for consumer and online, who was previously director of future media and technology at the BBC, and who left that position to head up Project Kangaroo, the now-defunct joint VOD venture between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. In response to a question from The Times as to whether he had been "poached by Microsoft for his TV expertise" (which would include expertise on the BBC's BBC iPlayer online catch-up service, which currently dominates the broadband video space in the UK), he stated: "I absolutely did not come here to do this. This is part of a range of services that I came to take on." He added that the service is "something we believe to be complementary to the iPlayers of this world...a post catch-up service for programs that no longer feature on the BBC iPlayer." (Note: a BBC Worldwide spokesperson confirmed to the newspaper that all the content it is offering on the new service is over 180 days old). Highfield also told The Times that all the new service's advertising inventory has already been sold.

The new MSN Video Player service will be in direct competition with Hulu, the US broadband video service co-owned by NBC, Fox and Disney-ABC, which plans to launch in the UK this fall. The UK version of that service is expected to offer programming from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, in addition to US programs.

In related news:

• According to a report in the publication, Eurogamer, Microsoft marketing executive, James Halton, told it that the company expects to launch the Twitter and Facebook integration, that it is planning for the Xbox 360, in the fall, and that the services will launch separately as standalone applications, rather than as part of a dashboard update. "It will be before Christmas," he stated, adding that "a lot of the background work's been done for a lot of applications that are coming."
• UK terrestrial broadcaster, Five, has become the first new partner to join Project Canvas, a joint over-the-top initiative between the BBC, UK commercial broadcaster ITV, and UK incumbent telco BT, which seeks to develop a common standard and interface for the delivery of online catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer and the ITV player, as well as other Internet-based VOD services, to broadband-connected set-top boxes--specifically, set-top boxes designed for reception of the UK's free-to-air multichannel TV services, Freeview and Freesat. "It's vital for broadcasters and other industry stakeholders to form partnerships such as Canvas if they're to open up new commercial opportunities and thrive in the digital world," Five CEO, Dawn Airey, said in a prepared statement. Channel 4 is now the only UK public service broadcaster not involved in Project Canvas. (Note: the BBC Executive recently responded to a request from the BBC Trust, the body responsible for public oversight of the corporation, for additional information on Project Canvas--see the article published on itvt.com, July 27th.)