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Microsoft and Chinese TV maker to start joint digital entertainment project

24 June 2007 10:45 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 6 comments

Microsoft announced yesterday that it had strategically purchased a 1% stake in the major Chinese TV maker Changhong for about $12 million USD so that they can jointly develop entertainment products linking television and the Internet. Both companies hope to be part of the race for profits in the internet's growing status as a medium to distribute movies and other programs.

Microsoft and Changhong will begin exploring "a wide range of scenarios for digital entertainment needs," said Roger Chen, a Microsoft spokesman in Beijing.

"The project focuses on in-home network digital entertainment - how to connect PCs, TVs and the Internet to provide this digital entertainment experience," he said.

In recent months, Apple, Sony and other companies have announced their plans for devices that will allow downloaded movies and programs to be viewed on HDTVs rather than on the PC.

The fact that Microsoft chose China as a partner is no coincidence. It has the largest population of television viewers, cellphone users, and it is second behind the US in internet users. The country is also the leading producer of consumer electronics.

"Definitely China is a very important strategic market for Microsoft and on digital entertainment, a major potential market," said Chen.

Microsoft isnt the first company with this idea though, in October, Viacom launched a venture with the Chinese search engine Baidu.com to distribute MTV music videos and other materials online.

Source:
Forbes

Permalink to this article

Zhongsou is guilty of copyright infringement (24 May 2008)

Baidu sued over copyrights again (2 March 2008)

Baidu gets sued again by record industry (5 February 2008)

Baidu.com not guilty in music piracy case (30 December 2007)

Retailers concentrating on high end HDTVs (25 August 2007)

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Discuss this article!
H0bbes (Junior Member) 24 June 2007 12:10
HAHA! First post :-] M$ is just doing what Wal-mart does, with a lil remix... [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 25 June 2007 2:10
1% now and see how this percentage grows. [ + quote]
plazma247 (Newbie) 26 June 2007 2:50
I know in the uk Microsoft were suppose to have shares in NTL prior to NTL getting bough out by virgin media recently. So i would expect they have been probably slowing doing the same over the rest of the world as part of some ongoing global strategy for the future. [ + quote]
ChromeMud (Junior Member) 26 June 2007 4:45
China seems to be the future.Maybe I've been watching too much 24! [ + quote]
Steve83 (Member) 29 June 2007 11:12
So now the MPAA will be able to sue MicroSoft when all the new digital TV shows get pirated to Chinese DVDs & re-sold all over the world! :-D [ + quote]
memjim (Newbie) 30 June 2007 7:38
like most other items from 'china'-DON'T EAT IT! [ + quote]