Since the mid-90s when they launched a 24-hour cable news network and purchased WebTV, Microsoft has been trying to figure out how to marry television with the Internet (see our full history from July). Now, a decade later, they may finally be gaining some traction.

BusinessWeek reports this morning that though only about 500,000 homes get TV service over the Internet from phone companies using Microsoft software, the company’s IPTV efforts appear to be gathering significant steam. AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV service has grown from 51,000 to 126,000 customers over the last quarter and should be available to 8 million homes by year’s end. Swisscom has signed up 50,000 customers for its Microsoft-powered service (about 1.6% of the Swiss TV market). British Telecom, meanwhile, has designs to sign up 2-3 million IPTV customers within the next 5 years, on the back of Microsoft solutions.

Joost has just announced its first developer days, which the Internet TV company is promoting as a chance to meet some of their developers and get some tips for building widgets. Here are the details of the Developer Days. If any last100 readers plan to attend, contact us if you’re interested in writing a guest post about your experience.

Note that some of the presentations will be filmed and Joost will upload them onto a special Developer Channel in Joost later in the year.

Who:
These workshops are aimed at developers with at least basic knowledge of html and javascript

What:
* a (free) lunch
* short presentations from the widgets team at Joost, including an introduction to building widgets, and an update on widget features in new releases
* a preview of our first commercial widget
* the opportunity to work on a widget or two yourself or use the workshops to get hands-on help for widgets you’ve started to develop.
* we’ll finish up with a drink or two and some free stuff to take away.

Where and when:
* initially in three locations: London, Amsterdam and New York.

London (Covent Garden) – 1pm – 6pm – Friday 16th November
Amsterdam (Central location) – 1pm – 6pm – Saturday 1st December
New York (Financial District) – 12pm – 5pm – Friday 7th December

To register your interest, RSVP to dev-workshop@joost.com and let them know which Developer Day you would like to attend and whether you would like to bring a friend or colleague. Joost will then send you more details on the location and format of the day. You may have to go on a waiting list, but they will let you know if that happens.

You got to admit one thing about the TV networks. Unlike the digitally-careful print media, these TV guys are willing to experiment with digital strategies, fail, dust themselves off, then try something new in hopes it will stick.

Just look at NBC Universal this week. They start off with the beta launch of Hulu, the online joint venture with News Corp. that was first touted as a “YouTube killer” but ended up being a boutique streaming site for the networks’ content.

A couple of days later, NBC U president and chief executive officer Jeff Zucker spits on Apple, saying the Steve Jobs-led company has “destroyed the music business” and must be stopped before it does the same to video. Just a few months earlier, Zucker said NBC Universal was pulling all of its content off iTunes when the network failed to get what it wanted in contract renegotiations with Apple, a bold move to be sure.

Now NBC U is reported to be shutting down its stand alone comedy site, DotComedy.com, according to Mike Shields of MediaWeek. Shield’s sources indicate that DotComedy, which launched in mid-2006 as a part of NBC’s focus on digital media, will fold and move the site’s content and traffic to NBC.com and, presumably, Hulu.