Microsoft continues to centralise its non-games content play around the Zune brand in a bid to extend its device-plus-content ecosystem. At launch the Zune brand was limited to music service (accessible via PC client) and Zune portable media players (PMPs). Both the music service and the PMP failed to achieve a significant market share in the US. In June 2009, Microsoft rebranded its Xbox Video Marketplace to Zune Marketplace signalling the commercial debut of the Zune multi-screen strategy. Unlike the music/PMP ecosystem, Microsoft's video store/games console ecosystem had by then achieved a sizable market presence, under the guise of Xbox Live, with the games console effectively acting as a Trojan horse.

The current development is a second attempt at making the brand relevant in the portable device space, this time betting on the smartphones rather than dedicated PMPs. With the firm foothold in the living room, Microsoft stands a good chance to develop a full-fledged multi-screen service for its video service. The introduction of DTO will further strengthen Microsoft's position on the OTT movie market, where it has a firm second place in European territories where Apple's iTunes Store (iTS) movies are available and is a market leader in markets without the latter (e.g. Italy).

Zune Pass, however, is unlikely to gain significant traction. The service so far has hardly been a runaway success in the US, where it was a relatively early mover of the current wave of subscription services, while the Western European markets Zune is entering already have a number of competing multi-platform music subscription products, which are already struggling to attract paying subscribers. Spotify has so far converted less than 5 per cent of its userbase to paying subscribers, while France's Deezer has a meagre 0.3 per cent conversion rate, albeit on a slightly different model. Zune Pass will not have large userbase familiar with this product to draw on to recruit subscribers; moreover, the service will be compatible with a much more limited share of the smartphones on the market (Deezer and Spotify are accessible on iOS and Android devices) further limiting its addressable market. The MP3 store will likewise face an uphill battle against the online music market incumbent the iTS on most European markets.