This seems, uh, overbroad:

If your company is thinking about delivering interactive video-on-demand cable-television programming or movies via satellite to consumers, maybe it'd better start thinking about paying royalties to Microsoft first. That's because Microsoft has just been granted exclusive United States patent rights to a "networked interactive entertainment system" which "allows viewers to create their own customized lists of preferred video content programs, such as movies, games, [and] TV shows."

Specifically, Microsoft on May 27, 2003 obtained patent number 6,571,390 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for their invention--that's their government-legitimized claim--entitled "Interactive entertainment network system and method for customizing operation thereof according to viewer preferences."

Indeed, judging by the summary description included in the patent filing, it looks like Microsoft may have locked up rights to any system which offers up time-shifted movies or television programs over cable, broadband, or satellite systems. (The industry calls programming which customers can start up from the beginning at any time via their cable box "video on demand.)

That may be what Microsoft had in mind from the beginning. [Embedded-Watch.com]