Tech lifestyle website Gear Live is reporting that Microsoft is planning to unveil integration of the popular online video service Hulu into the Xbox 360 dashboard for use with their subscription-based Xbox Live service. The announcement is expected to happen at Microsoft’s E3 press conference which is scheduled at 10 AM PST on June 14th.
Hulu will reportedly be a subscription-based service, similar to the way the Netflix instant streaming service currently works on Xbox Live. Details are still very sketchy, however, and several questions remain as to how the subscription will work and whether the entire Hulu catalog will be available to Xbox Live subscribers or if it will be limited content like Netflix.
According to IGN, there has yet to be any confirmation on the impending partnership from either Microsoft or Hulu.
This announcement comes at a time when tech-savvy consumers are increasingly relying on internet content for entertainment rather than cable TV subscriptions. With major cable companies, like Comcast, beginning to provide movies & television shows to subscribers via the internet, it’s not surprising that Hulu is looking at forming such a partnership. We’ll likely see a number of content providers teaming up with Sony & Microsoft in the future to provide streaming entertainment straight to consumer’s consoles. Two such recent announcements include Sony finalizing deals with MLB.TV and HBO to supply content on the Playstation Network.
It remains to be seen, however, how many Xbox live subscribers will pay the additional fee for the convenience of streaming the content through their console to the TV rather than watching for free on the computer. Hopefully, increasing competition will keep fees low while giving subscribers a wide variety of viewing choices.
