Microsoft Announces TV and Movies for Xbox Live

PreacherTom writes "In the latest of several recent upgrades to their online service, Microsoft has announced that their Xbox Live service will begin offering movies and television on demand starting on November 22nd. All subscribers (including those using the free service) will have access to movies from Paramount and Warner Bros. along with TV shows from CBS and MTV. Prices haven't been officially released as of yet, but MS has stated that they are attempting to be competitive with similar services from iTunes and cable companies." There is lots of commentary out there on this one, so Read More to reference the many other sites discussing this story. Besides commentary on the announcement itself, Eurogamer has Sony's snarky commentary on this move by Microsoft.

My favorite part of Sony's commentary

Sony "would never segregate or shut out any of our consumers from our entertainment experience because they didn't buy the top of the line system."

I think you just did Sony. I sure as heck can't afford your console and, seeing that I've bought multiple PSX and PS2 systems (mainly because your hardware is garbage and dies after a few years of use) which definitely qualifies me as one of your consumers, you've pretty much "shut out" or alienated me. I much prefer MS's approach. Although I prefer Nintendo's the most. Keep it simple, keep it a console, offer something intriguing and new.

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Sony "would never segregate or shut out any of our consumers from our entertainment experience because they didn't buy the top of the line system."

I think you just did Sony. I sure as heck can't afford your console and, seeing that I've bought multiple

"All subscribers"

I wonder if that really is all subscribers, or all *american* subscribers?

Unfortunately...

It seems to be US only judging by Major Nelson's comments. This seems rather silly when iTunes already has the US covered for downloadable content, it's as if companies don't want our money in Europe and the rest of the world. I'd gladly pay to download mo

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Itunes doesn't compete directly with this as the 360 DLs will be in high def and available to be seen on your television right away. I am not sure that the itune and other computer-based distribution overlaps this. Of course, on-demand from my digital cabl

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the 360 DLs will be in high def and available to be seen on your television right away

Those two statements can't both be true if Microsoft is targeting home-based broadband. There's a lot of bandwidth being piped into the home these days, but not enough to

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I believe by "right away" the GP was referring to "as soon as you download it" not streaming in real time.

Part of the point is that most people don't have TV outs on there computers, even fewer have a computer in the vicinity of their TV. And fewer stil

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My cable company (when I could get cable) offered me the same thing but I actually only got 4Mbps peak and when my street was busy, I didn't get that either. Also lots of places have DSL but no cable, although I live in a place without either. The only thi

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This seems rather silly when iTunes already has the US covered for downloadable content, it's as if companies don't want our money in Europe and the rest of the world. I'd gladly pay to download movies or TV shows such as Lost however they simply don't see

All this on a 20gig hard drive???

Given that the Xbox 360 only has a 20 gig hard drive, I'm hoping these TV shows and movies will be priced as disposable rentals. Hell, use DRM to have them expire after 30 days, so long as you make them cheap enough on that basis. The few game demos that

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it's got a 20GB drive, but only about 14GB are available at the time of purchase

and if you've purchased a couple of xbox live arcade games and have a couple demos, you've almost used up your entire drive.

hopefully, they'll have the option of using an exter

At last!

I can finally watch TV shows on my TV! Thank you, Microsoft!

Zonked

Ah, Zonk, just had throw a jab in a Sony into your commentary didn't ya?

Look it's logical fallacy 8: Prejudicial Language!

Well

I'm all in favour of Microsoft's new plan, it will be good to see some more media content on the Xbox Live Marketplace rather than just game trailers or promotional clips, however what makes me worried is the size of these things. Take for example you are the average user of an Xbox and you download a few demos first (Need For Speed Carbon alone is 1.1gb) and then you decide to rent 2 movies or so. I'd say you will very quickly find yourself running out of harddisk space on premium consoles, or cores that have been upgraded. Especially the way they are letting people buy and keep TV shows, it seems as if they will need to start upping the hard drive sizes pretty quickly if they start offering this amount of content, not to mention the speed of the network which already almost grinds to a halt during weekends due to the huge amount of traffic. It will be interesting to see how it works out and how much competition there will be between the Xbox 360, the iTV and anything Sony can produce in the entertainment section with the PS3.

Re:Haha

How can something be dominating when it has no competition? When the PS3 and Wii are released, then let the speculation begin?

Re:Haha

You make a very good point. However, I can see where they are coming from with their point of view. MS has had Xbox live for some time now on their last two generations (well both) of consoles. While the PS2 had online capabilities, there was no "centralized hub" from Sony in which to offer upgrades, expansion packs- well, anything at all. "Xbox Live" offered a centralized hub for updates at first, but has grown into something much, much more. No matter what your stance is on MS or the console market, you have to admit that MS has done a pretty good job. Hell, GameSpy and IGN basically offered more online content/features for the PS2 than Sony did.

Before I am labeled simply "pro-MS", let me say that I own a PS@ (and had a PS1) and will probably purchase other next-gen consoles as well. I am not a fan of a particular vendor, I am a fan of consoles, gadgets, and games.

I am actually hoping for Sony to launch a centralized portal for their systems. Nintendo (while not a Game Cube fan, I do have a DS) as well. I look forward to more options, (hopefully) competitive pricing structures (to keep prices down), and competition to keep content fresh and attractive.

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This argument holds as much water, as saying that the PS3 is selling like crazy because all two PS3's at a store sold out already for pre orders. Being first, out of one place, does not make a race.

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"The only thing that CBS has is maybe NCIS"

Um how about Two and a Half Men, the #1 comedy sitcom on television after Raymond ended? Wish this was around before, had to pirate all the old episodes. Would rather own a legal copy.

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The largest market segment is 24 years and older.

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MS is going to let us pay for the ability to watch Television shows and movies on our televisions.

.........

Another Brilliant Innovation brought to us by Microsoft.

I hear it's patent pending.

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Phrased as "The Cable Bill / Netflix Killer" it has a much brighter future. I'm not saying thats going to happen, we have to see what kind of content selection and price they're going to offer. But as I said somewhere else, if they're able to provide me wi

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Maybe you won't use it, and bully for you. At 3.33+ hours a day I'm guessing you're doing a lot of flipping which you're not gonna get from any pay-per-download service. My tv watching is more of the 5-6 shows per week variety. Using your math thats $24 a

Disney != Sony

Hey, anyone know when "Lost" is coming out on UMD?

The TV series Lost is Disney, not Sony. You might as well ask when the movie Cinderella is coming out on UMD. (You might have been confusing Sony with Sonny [pineight.com].)

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Assuming 12 Mbps VC-1 WMV, which would be about 3 GB per 1/2 hour episode, about 6 episodes or 2 movies. That would be decent HD. But MS will likely offer something near-to-streaming, about 500 kbps - 1 Mbps, making that at least 72 half hour episodes or 2

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Sorry calculated from the wrong number. At 1.5 Mbps for HD it would be about 16 movies.