The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Microsoft in Internet TV venture

The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Microsoft in Internet TV venture: "Alcatel, the world's largest provider of broadband Internet equipment, and Microsoft agreed to jointly develop and sell products for watching television via Web connections.
The companies will combine their Internet-Protocol video software, and Alcatel will be the preferred company to install the product for network operators such as SBC Communications, said Alan Mottram, Alcatel's head of fixed solutions.
'Every fixed-line operator is contemplating or already moving to IPTV,' Mottram said in a news conference in Paris yesterday. 'We are integrating the Microsoft TV middleware and Alcatel hardware and software to provide a combined offer.'
...
The companies worked on the agreement for about a year to solve "issues," Mottram said, without giving details. "Mating elephants is always an interesting proposition." "