With that in mind, Shari Barnett, director of Media Services at Microsoft TV, said she sent an e-mail to Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, asking what he personally would like to watch?
According to Barnett, a speaker at this week's VON, a Voice over IP trade show in Boston, Gates replied: "Old Richard Feynman lectures, MIT research on AIDS, and Dora the Explorer" for his daughter. "I'll never miss a good golf tournament," he said, as recalled by Barnett.
Barnett used Gates' replies to illustrate the wide range of programming the public will demand from IPTV.
"Microsoft wants to glue it all together," she said. "There will be many different models."
Microsoft has marketed its IPTV software to several major telephone companies including AT&T, BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon Communications.