Software will change the focus of TV, Microsoft exec says

Microsoft's little engine that could may be its TV group, a unit that has spent more than a decade trying to move the company's software from computers to televisions, set-top boxes and cable systems.
Microsoft TV hasn't crested the hill yet, but it's getting a boost as TVs become more like computers, content goes digital and broadband ties it all together.Last week the group released a tool kit for its "Mediaroom" TV software platform, and later this year its software will appear in Xbox 360s that British Telecom will offer as set-top boxes.
Driving the train is Enrique Rodriguez, a 20-year TV-industry veteran who previously led the set-top box and modem business at French electronics giant Thomson.
Rodriguez had just retired and moved to Texas in 2003, to be close to his native Mexico, when Robbie Bach asked him to develop entertainment features of the Xbox.
Since then, the TV products were consolidated into Bach's Entertainment and Devices division, and Rodriguez was chosen to lead the unit, producing Mediaroom, Media Center software for PCs and software for devices that extend home networks to TVs in the home.