Back in 1997, Microsoft purchased WebTV for $503 million dollars during the Web 1.0 boom. Microsoft later rebranded WebTV into MSN TV back in 2001, which was a service that featured a dedicated hardware device attached to your TV. Microsoft has now quietly announced that MSN TV will be shutting down.
“For the past decade, we have been excited to build products that provided our customers with easy access to the Internet on TV. Unfortunately, all good things must eventually come to an end. Today we are announcing that we will be closing the MSN TV service. The last day of the MSN TV service will be September 30, 2013,” Microsoft stated in an email to MSN TV subscribers.
The MSN TV subscription package included a wireless remote, wireless keyboard, and the internet media player set-top box. The primary feature of MSN TV was allowing a TV to be connected to the Internet for web browsing and email reading, without the need of a bulky and expensive computer.
MSN TV may have been an awesome service back in its day but most of its technology was implemented into the Xbox console. On top of that, consumers also have the choice of using alternatives such as Roku and Apple TV. Microsoft also recently sold its Mediaroom business to Ericsson, which featured software for set-top boxes used by ATT’s U-verse service.
So there you have it. If you are still one of the few people using MSN TV, the service will shut down September 30th of this year.
