The BBC has entered a formal relationship with Microsoft, opening the door to future deals on the delivery of digital content. In some ways this is similar the Beeb’s broadband service, under which it has signed agreements with many UK ISPs to provide access to superior-quality streams of BBC content.

Yet this could go much further - the possibilities raised in the ZDnet article include content pushed to Xbox 360s and Windows Live Messenger.

Hopefully the promise of these facilities won’t be overshadowed by the BBC neglecting efforts to support relatively open methods of distribution, e.g. their multicast video trial (which uses the MPEG4/AVC a.k.a. H.264 video codec).

BBC Signs ‘Memo of Understanding’ With Microsoft:

An anonymous reader writes “Microsoft has signed a memorandum of understanding with the BBC for ’strategic partnerships’ in the development of next-generation digital broadcasting techniques. They are also speaking to other companies such as Real and Linden Labs. Windows Media Centre platform, Windows Live Messenger application and the Xbox 360 console have all been suggested as potential gateways for BBC content. It is unclear how this impacts on existing BBC research projects such as Dirac, although it is understood that the BBC would face heavy criticism if its content was only available via Microsoft products.”

(Via Slashdot).