The agreement is expected to enable the entertainment industry to deliver premium on-demand entertainment in the home by protecting rights to prevent revenue loss.

Both companies will attempt to provide a flexible rights solution that allows the entertainment industry to take advantage of new usage models for today’s digital home and broad consumer adoption and use of digital media technologies.

Under the agreement, Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM technologies will recognize the Macrovision signals, enabling temporary storage (time shifting) on digital devices of Macrovision-protected content received via analog interfaces. Additionally, an Internet-delivered movie, downloaded to a PC, can now be protected on analog video playback out of a PC.

With the growing popularity of Video-on-Demand and Internet-delivered on-demand entertainment, this agreement is good news for consumers who want more recent movies and other entertainment delivered straight to their homes, said Steve Weinstein, vice president, entertainment technologies group at Macrovision. It also benefits the entertainment industry, which can take advantage of emerging revenue channels while remaining confident their rights are protected.