TV content on Xbox Live confirmed, coming this holiday

It seems all the rumors about Microsoft courting content providers to supply television content to Xbox Live are coming true. The company announced on Wednesday that it would be bringing content from over 40 different providers to their Xbox Live service starting fourth quarter of this year.

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The official press release from Microsoft reads,

"A new era in television begins this holiday where your entertainment becomes instantly searchable, easily discoverable and enjoyable in extraordinary new ways from a single device — Xbox 360. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to roll out the next generation of TV entertainment on Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment service for Xbox 360. Nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy, will begin rolling out entertainment services to the console this holiday, in more than 20 countries."

Interestingly enough Dish Network and DirecTV are not included on the list of content providers but Comcast and Verizon FiOS are. It would stand to reason that Microsoft is trying to partner with those companies but perhaps a deal hasn't been struck just yet. HBO GO is technically free with an HBO subscription so that feature should at least be available to DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers who have the premium channel. How channels like Bravo and Syfy will determine access to their content is still unknown.

Combining this announcement with the fact existing services on the console like Hulu, Netflix, Last.fm, and ESPN, the Xbox 360 becomes a nearly complete option as a set top box and media streaming service if you are a Comcast or FiOS customer.

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The press release also indicates Kinect functionality could be coming to some of these services which will mostly be related to the Xbox 360 dashboard update due sometime this fall. Having all of that content not only be searchable but perhaps voice searchable is very compelling. Being able to simply tell your Xbox to bring up episodes of Game of Thrones and then using voice commands to pause the action when you have to get up to fetch a sandwich would be lovely. There isn't a set top box on the market that can do that.

One thing about this announcement to consider is how they are going to market this feature to the average consumer. Whether this feature going to be a big holiday push for Microsoft, and will their content providers be sending out notices to customers letting them know this option exist are unanswered questions. Time will tell how Microsoft handles this launch and also how this added load impacts the Xbox Live servers.

As a DirecTV customer I'm obviously not willing to give up my set top box in favor of my 360. Even if my TV service of choice was going to be available on the device I would be hard pressed to switch considering the failure rate of that hardware. Are you willing to use your 360 as an all-in-one device? Do you intend to drop the monthly set top box fee when this launches? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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