The Facts:
- Microsoft announced multiple new content partners for the Xbox 360
- ESPN will bring 24/7 live streams of their major TV channels
- The NBA and NHL are bringing their apps as well
- Other providers include Revision3, Twitch.tv, Comedy Central, and Paramount
- A full list can be found here
- A subscription to Xbox Live Gold (~$60/year) is required to access this content
At the annual gaming love-fest known as E3, there have been a lot of great games announced. Games that will surely sell millions of copies and make many millions of revenue. Nintendo is even set to reveal everything about the first of the next generation of consoles, the Wii U, tomorrow at their main press conference (which might also be their last home console, but that is for another post). But only one announcement has really left me feeling I have seen the future, and it isn't a videogame.
ESPN is coming to the Xbox 360. And no, I don't mean the online-only offerings of ESPN 3; I am talking about the full force of 24/7 live feeds from the ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN U TV channels. Buy an Xbox 360, Xblox Live Gold, and have Internet access (and, if my Dad is to be believed, possibly pay a small fee to ESPN as well) and you now have the first real a la carte TV experience. And this is not coming from Apple, who has fumbled for years with the "hobby"-status Apple TV, or Google, whose Google TV program has been at best a flop for them and hardware partner Logitech, but Microsoft. Yes, the same company that thinks we want a smartphone UI for desktop computers.
Microsoft seems to have been trying to reach this point for several years. It was one of the first companies Netflix partnered with to get their streaming service onto every screen in existence. Hulu and ESPN3 were added alongside movie rentals and purchasing in Zune. On the PC, Windows Media Center has allowed users to buy a TV tuner card, plug it into a PC, and watch live TV in a window on your monitor for years. Earlier, I wondered aloud on G+ the possibilities if the next Xbox were to come with an internal or external TV tuner. Microsoft may not have had the first connected set-top box or the best content deals for some time, but they have made lapped the "big boys" while no one was looking. It is probably safe to say that there are more Xbox 360's hooked up to TVs than Apple TVs, Google TVs, Boxee Boxes, and Roku boxes combined. And the usage numbers are probably in Microsoft's favor to an even greater degree.
ESPN on the Xbox 360 will now become the first real toe of a major cable network in the water of a la carte channel offering. It's success could prompt others to follow; it's failure could leave us with the current model of paying the cable company for channels we never watch. Time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell.
Questions moving forward:
- Will the new ESPN app be free or be an additional monthly fee?
- Will ESPN offer a similar deal to Apple, Google, or other players?
- Should Xbox Live Gold be free now that it mostly covers 3rd party digital content?
- Will Apple, Google, and others really get behind their set-top box and/or connected TV efforts?
- How will other networks and the cable companies react?
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