A former longtime president of CBS Entertainment has joined Microsoft as its president of entertainment and digital media.

Nancy Tellem, who was president of CBS Entertainment from 1998 to the end of 2009, "will oversee a Microsoft production studio based in Los Angeles that will create both traditional ‘linear’ programming and interactive programming that fuses video and gamelike content," The New York TImes reports, adding, "She will report to Phil Spencer, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, part of the Microsoft entertainment division that oversees the company’s Xbox console."

Tellem told the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog, "What’s so exciting about this opportunity is we’re looking at the next iteration of television. We’re starting from scratch and we’ll be looking at linear and interactive content, both longer-form, like television, and shorter form."

The L.A. Times story continues, "Although most avid video-game players are young men, Tellem said she sees her primary audience as families who use a broad range of digital devices.

" ‘We’re going to reach out to a very broad range of consumers,’ she said. ‘When I first got to CBS we looked at what the core audience was and built from there, and that’s just what I’m going to do again.’ The executive has yet to put together her staff, and she says she doesn’t yet know what content she might produce first or when it will launch, though it seems unlikely that anything could debut before late 2013. But she said she hopes to make ‘premium content’ that can compete with current shows airing on broadcast and cable networks.

" ‘We have large visions as to where this could all go,’ Tellem said. ‘Building up a studio in Los Angeles with a significant financial commitment is very important.’ "

Nancy Tellem