In the United States, live sports has long been the missing link in online video, but Microsoft could be in talks with the Walt Disney Company to change that.
The New York Times reports that Microsoft and Disney "held in-depth discussions" to bring ESPN content to the Xbox 360. No deal has been made, but it's possible that users would be able to pay a subscription fee to watch live video streams of sporting events.
The service may be similar to ESPN360 (pictured), which shows a wide variety of sporting events with football being the notable exception. Currently, Internet service providers build the ESPN360 subscription cost into their pricing, but subscribers to non-participating ISPs such as Time Warner can't access the service at all. On the Xbox 360, the Times reports, the service may be available to all, and could also include interactive sports-related games. It's not clear whether the programming would avoid overlap with what's shown on ESPN's cable channels.
A deal would be part of Microsoft's plan to turn the Xbox 360 into a full-featured multimedia hub rather than a device for gaming only. Users can already rent and buy movies and television shows, stream Netflix videos, listen to streaming music through Last.fm, participate in an interactive version of the game show 1 vs. 100 and check on their Twitter and Facebook profiles.
But sports is the holy grail. Online video is still young, but ESPN is certainly a major sticking point for people who are tempted to ditch cable and bring the Internet into their living rooms. Aside from the paid MLB.tv service, which doesn't even show in-market games online, there are very few options for watching live sports through a Web-connected set-top box. ESPN content, notably, is not available through Boxee, Roku or any video game console, yet.
Combined with PlayOn, whose software sends videos from Hulu and other websites to all three current gaming consoles, an ESPN channel could make the Xbox 360 a formidable cable replacement, alongside the Boxee box and Wireless USB solutions. I'll be very interested to see if a deal materializes.
