When it comes to watching video content on the Xbox 360, most people turn to Netflix or Hulu. Xbox does have its own video store — currently under the Zune brand — but it has an anemic selection and an unpopular download-and-watch delivery system that, frankly, hasn’t changed much since it was introduced in 2006.
But change is coming to Xbox Live’s video offerings, say our sources in Redmond, Wash. Rumblings around the Microsoft campus there suggest a new way to watch videos on the Xbox 360 is coming, with Microsoft as the direct source of the content. Sick of watching content partners like Netflix and Hulu eat its proverbial lunch, Microsoft is said to be rolling out its own subscription-based video service under the Zune label sometime this year.
With a single monthly subscription and a huge library of videos to choose from, Netflix’s app has many advantages over the current native Xbox Live offering. Microsoft did announce more than a year ago that the Xbox Live Video Store would be merging with the Zune Marketplace, so the arrival of Zune-branded video streaming isn’t surprising. Moving to a monthly subscription-based plan, on the other hand, is a new twist.
What isn’t known is how Microsoft is going to handle subscriptions. The company currently offers an all-you-can-hear music subscription service with the Zune Pass; this new video offering could be similar, or it could be folded into the existing Zune Pass itself. Or it could be a premium feature for those with Xbox Live Gold memberships, likely as an add-on to recurring subscriptions already in place.
Either way, with the Zune licensing, Microsoft will have access to a larger number of videos than it does with Xbox Live. And the new system would give viewers an instant way to watch videos instead of the downloading method used now. More importantly, Zune Video could be and most likely will be shared among multiple Microsoft devices, like Media PCs and Windows Phone 7 series handsets.
Microsoft doesn’t want to put Netflix out of business, per se, but it’s clear that it’s tired of seeing potential revenue from its own hardware going to someone else.
But change is coming to Xbox Live’s video offerings, say our sources in Redmond, Wash. Rumblings around the Microsoft campus there suggest a new way to watch videos on the Xbox 360 is coming, with Microsoft as the direct source of the content. Sick of watching content partners like Netflix and Hulu eat its proverbial lunch, Microsoft is said to be rolling out its own subscription-based video service under the Zune label sometime this year.
With a single monthly subscription and a huge library of videos to choose from, Netflix’s app has many advantages over the current native Xbox Live offering. Microsoft did announce more than a year ago that the Xbox Live Video Store would be merging with the Zune Marketplace, so the arrival of Zune-branded video streaming isn’t surprising. Moving to a monthly subscription-based plan, on the other hand, is a new twist.
What isn’t known is how Microsoft is going to handle subscriptions. The company currently offers an all-you-can-hear music subscription service with the Zune Pass; this new video offering could be similar, or it could be folded into the existing Zune Pass itself. Or it could be a premium feature for those with Xbox Live Gold memberships, likely as an add-on to recurring subscriptions already in place.
Either way, with the Zune licensing, Microsoft will have access to a larger number of videos than it does with Xbox Live. And the new system would give viewers an instant way to watch videos instead of the downloading method used now. More importantly, Zune Video could be and most likely will be shared among multiple Microsoft devices, like Media PCs and Windows Phone 7 series handsets.
Microsoft doesn’t want to put Netflix out of business, per se, but it’s clear that it’s tired of seeing potential revenue from its own hardware going to someone else.
