Microsoft's firm commitment with interactive mission

Microsoft has claimed its interactive entertainment services will herald "a new era in television". However, it may have overestimated TV viewers' interactive inclination.

Microsoft's Kinect may work well for playing games, but not many people want to be interactive when it comes to watching TV. Joe Raedle / Getty Images / AFP

Microsoft has claimed that interactive entertainment services now starting to be delivered on its Xbox games console will herald "a new era in television".

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However, it may have overestimated TV viewers' inclination to use the kind of interactive TV services offered through Xbox 360's Live new online dashboard, as TV viewing is a largely passive activity. Microsoft is, however, adamant that viewers will want to use their TV screens to communicate and share TV programmes with friends, shop online and perform a host of other interactive functions.

But Paul O'Donovan, a principal analyst at the US international research company Gartner, disagrees. "Our focus groups conducted in the US, London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Taiwan all show that, on the whole, TV viewers use other devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones while watching TV," he says. "This idea that the TV is merely another computer is misleading."

Providing TV services has been an important goal for Microsoft ever since its acquisition of WebTV in 1997. The software developer then broke its rule of leaving hardware manufacture to electronics makers by launching the Xbox games console in 2001. Microsoft made no secret of the fact that it intended the Xbox to pave the way for a whole range of internet-based services well beyond videogames.

"Microsoft could combine gaming and movies in a way that allows users to dial up and down how much narrative they want versus gameplay, based on their moods or circumstances," says James McQuivey, an analyst at the research company Forrester.

Microsoft is also understood to be planning to create 3-D virtual shopping malls to give online shoppers the opportunity to view and enter specific shops in much the same way they might shop in a mall. Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, envisages a future when TV viewers will simply use a remote control to point and click on anything they want buy. He quotes the example of someone wanting to purchase the brand of shoes worn by an actress in a well-known US TV series.

But some in the industry believe Microsoft's TV strategy is based on a misconception of how electronic media is evolving. Assumptions that people would wish to interact with the images on their TV screens are now being questioned, even by media giants such as Sky, which once endorsed interactive TV.

"I do not agree with the theory that TVs will replace computers and other devices," Mr O'Donovan says. "TV is a more passive experience, as evidenced by Sky's decision to switch off its interactive red button. It simply was not profitable for them to continue supporting the service."

Industry watchers are also sceptical of Microsoft's belief that users will want to use technology enabling them to control what happens on their TV screens by physical motions such as hand gestures.

"Yes, Microsoft is bringing a motion-detect experience to the user interface via Kinect, but TV audiences are incredibly conservative," says Adrian Drury, a lead analyst at the research company Ovum. "The majority of TV viewing is highly passive and it's an open question whether mainstream audiences will adopt a gesture based interface."

There is even a growing view that people are likely to be irritated by the introduction of the services Microsoft has developed.

"People often have it [the TV] on in the background like old-fashioned radio," Mr O'Donovan says. "But, when people are watching a film or programme, the others would not appreciate one of them taking up part of the screen to access Facebook."

Microsoft is, nevertheless, determined to push ahead with its interactive strategy at all costs. It has signed deals with content providers such as HBO in the US and the BBC in the UK to offer TV services to users in more than 20 countries and soon plans to extend the service to other countries. According to Ahmed Al Derazi, a Microsoft spokesman, it is "working hard" on bringing the Xbox Live service to the Middle East.

So far, however, analysts remain unconvinced and are increasingly pouring cold water on Microsoft's TV strategy.

"Microsoft's update to the Xbox 360 isn't in itself the future of television. It is another incremental step by just one of the players," Mr Drury says.