Microsoft is launching a free video service in the UK that will be focused on streaming full-length television shows. Dubbed the MSN Video Player, and powered by Flash and Windows Media Video, the service will go into a six-month trial version next week. While it's quite surprising that Microsoft is not using Silverlight, there are whispers that this will change if the service ever moves out of trial. The move comes right before the company kills off Soapbox, its would-be YouTube competitor that never made it out of beta, at the end of next month.
The MSN Video Player will launch with over 300 hours of content both old and new from BBC Worldwide and All3Media, including shows such as Shameless, Peep Show, League of Gentlemen, Hotel Babylon, The Young Ones, Hustle, Dead Ringers, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, and The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Programs will not, however, appear on the MSN service right after airing. Users will have to wait until the online catch-up TV window on broadcasters' own websites expires, which can range from a week to six months.
Naturally, the trial is just the beginning; Microsoft has plans to expand the service in the future (like rolling it out on the Xbox 360, Windows Mobile, and IPTV), but for now, the software giant says it is focusing on the trial version. If successful, Redmond will increase the number of content partners and available shows.
Unlike the BBC iPlayer, the MSN Video Player will have ads: half-hour shows will be preceded by short commercials and one-hour or longer episodes will be interrupted by a commercial break. Microsoft has sold all of its advertising space for the player to three media agencies: MediaCom, MindShare, and MEC Interaction. The company says it can reach 27 million UK users via its various MSN websites.
"MSN UK is launching MSN Video Player, a pilot longform (full length) video service," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "As audiences are increasingly migrating away from traditional TV and demanding more from their online experiences, advertisers are finding it hard to reach certain audiences. The UK has the most advanced online audience ready for new online video experiences and MSN UK already has a successful video offering and an audience hungry for video content."
Even when Microsoft discontinues a product, it seldom leaves the market completely: there's generally another attempt coming. With the announcement earlier this month that Soapbox would be going the way of the dodo on August 31, Microsoft emphasized that the move would only affect user-generated video and that online video will remain a key part of its MSN offering.
Still, it's not clear why Microsoft thinks it needs to start providing TV content. According to The Guardian, Ashley Highfield, Microsoft UK's managing director of consumer and online, said that it all started when the UK's proposed TV venture, Project Kangaroo, which would have offered on-demand material from the three largest broadcasters, was shot down by the government.
Microsoft saw an opening and took it. Highfield was previously one of the key figures behind the BBC iPlayer but joined Microsoft when Project Kangaroo died. Arqiva acquired the assets of Project Kangaroo last week and said it was planning its own TV aggregator service.
Microsoft's biggest competition in TV streaming will be Hulu, which is expected to launch in the UK in about a month. Hulu, a joint venture between Disney, NBC Universal, and News Corporation, is the most popular TV streaming service in the US and the company's partners reportedly already include Channel 4, ITV, and the BBC.
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