PARIS - Eager to move its proprietary audio/video codec into Europe's steadily growing digital radio market, Microsoft Corp. has gained membership in the World DAB Forum, an industry group developing digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology.

"The Forum is moving forward with multiple new opportunities such as 5.1 surround sound and video-to-mobile implementations" using radio signals, said Gareth Sutcliffe, senior business manager of Windows Digital Media div. at Microsoft. "We want to be an active voice in the World DAB Forum."

Microsoft is targeting digital radio as the next battleground for its Windows Media Series 9 platform. Meanwhile, it continues to campaign for adoption of its Windows Media codec in the next generation HD DVD spec and emerging TV-on-mobile standard called DVB-Handheld (DVB-H).

The software giant hopes to convince radio broadcasters to embrace Windows Media Audio 9 Professional (WMA Pro) and Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9) and layer them on top of the current digital broadcast technology - based on the Eureka 147 standard - for next-generation multimedia data services.

Mike Wolf, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR's Consumer Media and Content Group, called Microsoft's latest move "a part of a larger domino effect Microsoft has been seeding for some time." The software giant, angling to move beyond the PC and finding digital entertainment a growth market, is "putting their technology into systems, into portable hard media and downloadable media," Wolf said.

Microsoft's participation in the World DAB Forum is viewed by some in the industry as a much needed boost for the digital radio standard. Steve Evans, vice president of sales at Frontier Silicon, a London-based fabless chip company, added, "Microsoft's bringing its codec into the market will broaden the appeal of DAB."

Although the Eureka 147 standard has been around since the mid-1990's, it has only recently taken off. DAB has been gaining momentum over the past two years, particularly in the U.K., a fact that has not escaped Microsoft's notice.

In contrast to the U.S. where terrestrial digital radio technology called HD Radio, developed and owned by iBiquity, is in its early stages, DAB digital radio is available in 35 countries in Europe and Asia along with Canada and Australia.

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