Fresh off a patent deal with Research In Motion, Microsoft on Tuesday announced it had hired Nancy Tellem to fill the role of the company’s president of Entertainment & Digital Media.
Tellem was formerly the president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group. At Microsoft, she will oversee a new studio in Los Angeles that aims to produce “both traditional ‘linear’ programming and interactive programming that fuses video and gamelike content,” for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system and the Xbox brand more generally, The New York Times reported.
Further clues to Tellem’s charge can be found in Microsoft’s own press release on the hiring, in which her boss, corporate VP Phil Spencer, gave the following statement:
“Whether you are voting for your favorite contestant on a TV show or playing a game, entertainment is becoming more personalized and social, driven by the Internet and new tools to interact with content,” Spencer said. “We are embarking on a new chapter with the creation of a studio dedicated to making original interactive and linear content, and I’m excited to have Nancy leading this effort.”
Tellem herself gave a statement saying she was “excited to be a part of the continued evolution of Xbox from a gaming console to the hub of every household’s entertainment experience.”
