AfterDawn: News

Microsoft kills off 90s set-top technology MSN TV

In 1997, Microsoft purchased a technology called WebTV, long before the boom of smart TV features and set-top boxes that we see now in even basic hardware.

For their $425 million, Microsoft never made a success of the tech, and they have now decided to cease operations as of September of this year.



One analyst, at the time, said WebTV "may be the product that could turn the World Wide Web into a mass-entertainment medium." It did not, and companies like Google and Apple have been trying to do the same in the last few years.

The WebTV kit consisted of the set-top, a keyboard and a remote and allowed users to surf the Web and check emails, but not too much else.

It was eventually broken up and converted into MSN TV, with most of the team sent over to work on Microsoft's MediaRoom or Xbox Live services.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Jul 2013 14:02

• Previous article

• Vancouver startup offering cheap gigabit Internet

• Next article

• Gartner: IT spending to increase minimally this year due to currency fluctuation

• 3 comments

• WW3

  Well, I had some of my best first WWW experiences with web TV, and in all honesty hate to see it go. I still remember the original intro they would play, and have the audio saved as a mp3 for kicks.
  
  You will be missed, web TV.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpIm8BNe8-o
  

  Custom Computer rebuild 2.80GHZ@6cores/8GBRAM|3DS | WII|360|PS3|
  
  

  11.7.2013 03:43 #1

• jalchin

  I was a Previewer for WebTV and got to beta test all the new stuff. I didn't even have a web-enabled PC back then!

  11.7.2013 19:00 #2

• WW3

  Originally posted by jalchin: I was a Previewer for WebTV and got to beta test all the new stuff. I didn't even have a web-enabled PC back then! Lucky person right here, must have been a nice thing to have been able to beta test it before "beta" was released to the public.
  
  Just can't do that sort of thing now a days, can you?
  

  Custom Computer rebuild 2.80GHZ@6cores/8GBRAM|3DS | WII|360|PS3|
  
  

  11.7.2013 19:41 #3