Microsoft inks deals with nearly 40 worldwide TV providers for Xbox LIVE TV


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Microsoft announced on Wednesday a massive range of deals with high profile TV providers worldwide

The deals will see a number of TV and entertainment channels coming to Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service. Highlights include Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO and Syfy in the United States and BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK.

Xbox users will need the latest dashboard update, due later this year, to experience live TV with Xbox LIVE. Microsoft is planning to make the TV channels available to Xbox LIVE subscribers and some partners will integrate Kinect experiences with their TV channels. ”Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360* and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.”

The full list includes providers worldwide:

• ABC iView – Australia

• AlloCiné – France, Germany, Spain, U.K.

• Antena 3 – Spain

• Astral Media’s Disney XD – Canada

• AT&T** – U.S.

• BBC – U.K.

• blinkbox – U.K.

• Bravo – U.S.

• BSkyB** – U.K.

• Canal+* – France, Spain

• Channel 4 – U.K.

• Channel 5 – U.K.

• CinemaNow (Best Buy) – U.S.

• Comcast – U.S.

• Crackle – Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S.

• Dailymotion – Available in 32 markets

• EPIX – U.S.

• ESPN** – U.S.

• Facebook** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets

• FOXTEL** – Australia

• GolTV – Spain

• HBO GO – U.S.

• Hulu – Japan

• Hulu +**– U.S.

• iHeartRadio (Clear Channel) – U.S.

• Last.fm** – U.K., U.S.

• LOVEFiLM – Germany, U.K.

• Manga Entertainment – U.S.

• Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment/Real Sports – Canada

• MediaSet – Italy

• MSN with MSNBC.com – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, U.K.

• MUZU.TV – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K.

• Netflix**– Canada, U.S.

• Rogers On Demand Online (RODO) – Canada

• RTVE – Spain

• SBS On Demand – Australia

• Syfy – U.S.

• Telefonica – Spain

• Televisa – Mexico

• “The Today Show” – U.S.

• TELUS** – Canada

• TMZ – U.S.

• Twitter** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets

• UFC – Canada, U.S.

• Verizon – U.S.

• VEVO – Canada, U.K., U.S.

• VimpelCom** – Russia

• Vodafone Portugal** – Portugal

• YouTube – Available in 22 markets

• ZDF – Germany

• Zune** – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain

* Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or other subscriptions/fees required. Kinect functionality varies by feature, provider and region.

** Denotes existing partners on Xbox LIVE available today.

http://www.winrumors..._source=twitter

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Looks cool, still waiting on details if it requires more money to comca$t or a$$ or ve$rizon. I have att for uverse internet, but not tv. They charge ~150 bucks to "setup" your xbox 360 for tv (100 disk and 50 dollar home fee). I also don't want all the channels on uverse, just ones i watch.. oh well. heh

i'd be thrilled if i could get discovery hd.. syfy is ok

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* Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or other subscriptions/fees required. Kinect functionality varies by feature, provider and region.

** Denotes existing partners on Xbox LIVE available today.

So you know what the * and ** stand for in the list.

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Maybe it's another Dashboard update or something? Then again, the new UI we're getting is light. It might be another UI change or something, as odd as it would be to announce so early. :s

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I think the "light UI" is just what you see on the screen, the white bg theme or w/e. Look at the leaked videos from a few days ago that show a darker BG etc, I think that's what we're going to get first.

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Who exactly is the target market with this? Since it is limited to certain channels, I just do not see this replacing any current cable boxes in anyone's home, at least no time soon, and it sounds to me like you may very well need to be a subscriber to cable to begin with to even get the channels? Also will it have a DVR type functionality? On-Demand support?

Just trying to figure out how a normal household could use it, and I am struggling. I guess it could work for a household who has multiple TV's and somehow one of the TV's does not have a cable box hooked up to it. But then I think about it and realize if that is the case, that TV is probably not the ideal TV to have the 360 hooked up to. I also do not see it replacing any cable boxes as that is nowhere near the amount of channels one gets with a cable subscription.

Now if one can somehow get these channels without a current subscription, that makes sense for college kids or people with not that much money. But the normal American household is already going to have cable of some sort. Especially if this is an additional fee on top of the cable they already have, I do not see many people choosing to pay for it. And if it is not an additional fee and it is part of an already existing cable subscription, once the novelty wears off, people are going to realize their normal cable box has about 5 times the amount of content and will go back to using it.

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That's really going to **** off some users here who love using that old Minority Report versus Kinect comic :laugh:

Who exactly is the target market with this? Since it is limited to certain channels, I just do not see this replacing any current cable boxes in anyone's home, at least no time soon, and it sounds to me like you may very well need to be a subscriber to cable to begin with to even get the channels? Also will it have a DVR type functionality? On-Demand support?

Just trying to figure out how a normal household could use it, and I am struggling. I guess it could work for a household who has multiple TV's and somehow one of the TV's does not have a cable box hooked up to it. But then I think about it and realize if that is the case, that TV is probably not the ideal TV to have the 360 hooked up to. I also do not see it replacing any cable boxes as that is nowhere near the amount of channels one gets with a cable subscription.

Now if one can somehow get these channels without a current subscription, that makes sense for college kids or people with not that much money. But the normal American household is already going to have cable of some sort. Especially if this is an additional fee on top of the cable they already have, I do not see many people choosing to pay for it. And if it is not an additional fee and it is part of an already existing cable subscription, once the novelty wears off, people are going to realize their normal cable box has about 5 times the amount of content and will go back to using it.

Limited target market right now, as far as the direct (read: full service, live coverage) providers go. Primarily it appears to only be a few providers who will actually offer their full service via IPTV on the 360 (Verizon, possibly AT&T, some of the overseas providers). It doesn't appear to be limited to certain channels, it's just that certain providers will have their own separate apps -- think of like what ESPN has right now. It remains to be seen how all the apps will provide service in terms of fees, however.

As far as DVR functionality: Microsoft's said in the past that there will be full DVR functionality with the live providers (Verizon, for instance). On-demand support is what the apps are for, it appears, and it looks like that's what Comcast's version of the service will primarily be (just like their iPhone/iPad app). You don't need a cable box with this, but you can still use cable boxes if you want, your 360 just won't require one.

I don't think this will be an additional fee. You may be able to subscribe to some of the apps, but I'd be absolutely amazed if any of the service providers had an additional fee. I can't think of a single app on the iPad/iPhone that requires anything more than an existing account, so I doubt this will be any different at all.

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The channels with a * next to them will have additional costs and require Gold etc. All the ones that don't shouldn't have fees, they're basically just streaming their channel to you like youtube and probably tossing in some ads so they get their cut that way. Only time will tell how it works out so we'll have to wait for more details.

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Is this going to be streaming live, or VOD style. if its Streaming live then for the low cost of an Xbox live subscription I would rather have that than Cable service (I currently do not have any television service)

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Is this going to be streaming live, or VOD style. if its Streaming live then for the low cost of an Xbox live subscription I would rather have that than Cable service (I currently do not have any television service)

It's not a simple "everything is streaming" or "everything is VOD." See my previous post.

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any word on the quality. doesnt the espn app only do 720?

No word. Can't imagine it'd matter -- content broadcast in 1080i doesn't look much different than 720p, and I don't know of any stations that broadcast in 1080p (especially not sports-related stations like ESPN).

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