Microsoft to pull the plug on MSN TV

Microsoft is shutting down MSN TV, a service formerly known as WebTV, even as Apple ramps up its set-top box efforts.

The pioneering service, one of the first to offer internet access via TV, will shut down 30 September, Microsoft said in an e-mail to subscribers and also through an FAQ posted on its web site.

WebTV, was founded by web entrepreneur Steve Perlman in 1996, and was acquired by Microsoft for $425 million in 1997.

WebTV offered television-based e-mail and web browsing via wireless keyboards but failed to appeal to consumers. The service was rebranded by Microsoft as MSN TV in 2001 to accelerate integration with products such as MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail.

The interactive service was also offered free by the software giant to new MSN online service, but the company's focus on Xbox game console that also offered internet access, relegated WebTV to the background.

Microsoft cited the myriad ways people could now access the internet as a factor contributing to the withdrawal of the service.

WebTV (later rebranded MSN TV) started in 1996, and was aimed at bringing new people 'online' and to offer people online an easy, hassle-free means of accessing the internet from the comfort of their homes.

Commentators say WebTV like many other inventions, was born of necessity. In need of a graphical display for his PC, Perlman hacked into the one he already owned – his television, creating a product that was a crude mix of set-top box and home theatre PC. It has often been likened to Google TV long before Google TV or even Google came into existence.

The WebTV kit (box, keyboard, remote) in addition to browsing the web also checked email without much extra and expensive hardware, and in April of 1997 Microsoft bought the company in a bid to integrate it with Windows CE and to take over living rooms across America.

Microsoft is believed to have profited enormously from it through monthly subscriptions. However, with stiff competition from AOL TV and others and the onset of a revolution in both how people watched TV and how they browsed the web, WebTV eventually lost out.