Some interesting news from a Microsoft press release:
On the morning of Sept. 28, 2007, U.S. users of Windows Vista Home Premium edition and Windows Vista Ultimate edition will find a new feature inside Media Center: the beta release of Internet TV. This new feature will allow people to enjoy a range of television and video content on their PCs and TV sets without a TV tuner in their PC. This streaming video content will be supported by an advertising platform provided by YuMe and will be available to viewers for free.*
The content available in Internet TV comes from MSN Video, with more than 100 hours available at the start of the beta period, including the following:
- Full episodes of TV shows such as the critically acclaimed “Arrested Development”
- Full-length music concerts by artists such as Chris Cornell, Snoop Dogg, Elton John, Pink, John Mayer and the Pussycat Dolls
- High-quality movie trailers from major movie studios
- The latest news segments from MSNBC
- Sports clips from FOX Sports
Internet TV has been designed for both the TV and PC screen, and features high-quality video optimized for broadband streaming. Viewers can enjoy these high-quality videos on Extenders for Windows Media Center, including Xbox 360 consoles, as well as PCs running Windows Media Center in Windows Vista (available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate).
Neat. We'll have to see how annoying the ads are, of course.