Microsoft Will Pull The Plug On MSN TV By September 30

Web TV was among the earliest services to offer internet access through TV sets. It initially offered television-based email and web browsing by coupling internet access with wireless keyboards. Microsoft later branded it as MSN TV, but it became increasingly irrelevant in recent years. Now, the company has decided that it will stop the service for good on September 30.


MSN TV

Web TV was originally founded by Steve Perlman back in 1996. Soon after, Microsoft saw some potential in the business and acquired the company for a whopping $425 million in 1997. The company had some success with it, especially after Web TV was refashioned as MSN TV in 2001, bringing MSN Messenger, MSN Hotmail and a whole lot of other Microsoft services to users’ TVs.

However, in recent years, users have found many new ways to access internet. At the heart of modern web use are mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Naturally, in view of such progress, a service like MSN TV has little or no significance.

This is precisely why it makes sense for Microsoft to shutter it. According to the official statement released by the company, “The web has continued to evolve at a breathtaking pace, and there are many new ways to access the internet. Accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to end the MSN TV service on September 30th, 2013. We are working with our customers to ensure the transition is as seamless as possible.”

It is important to note here that Microsoft has decided to push out MSN TV at a time when other vendors such as Apple are aggressively competing for the dominance in the set-top box arena.

Courtesy: CNET

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Tsais

    Microsoft pulls the plug on stuff all the time… that makes it so risky to buy anything from them outside Windows and Office.

    Millions of people lost all their DRM music, purchased from Microshuft, cause Microcruft didn’t feel like it anymore and one day just shut down their DRM servers. No compensation, just ‘sorry’ ‘too bad for ya’

    Guess why nobody is buying their phones, even though the internet is full of paid shills…

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