ESPN and Microsoft Teaming up for Xbox360 Streaming?

[Jon Childs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/business/media/19xbox.html?src=twt&twt=NYTimesAd' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/b...t&twt=NYTimesAd</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft has held in-depth talks with the Walt Disney Company about a programming deal with ESPN, according to people close to the talks, who requested anonymity because the talks were intended to be private. For a per-subscriber fee, ESPN could provide live streams of sporting events, similar to the ones available through ESPN 360."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1263945304.usr486.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/18/espn-streaming-coming-to-xbox-360/" target="_blank">Engadget</a>.</p><p>If Microsoft has its way, the Xbox360 will eventually replace your cable box. It is nowhere near there yet, but this is a good&nbsp;step in the right direction.&nbsp;Given that gamers are mostly men, and most men really want to be able to watch ESPN, its a no brainer to try and offer the ability to stream ESPN.&nbsp;If I could stream all my local sports teams through Xbox Live, as well as watch Netflix, and get all my local network channels over the air, I would think about getting rid of my cable service.&nbsp;If they could get Hulu streaming as well it would be great.</p>

[ptyork]

If Microsoft has its way, the Xbox360 will eventually replace your cable box. It is nowhere near there yet, but this is a good step in the right direction. Given that gamers are mostly men, and most men really want to be able to watch ESPN, its a no brainer to try and offer the ability to stream ESPN. If I could stream all my local sports teams through Xbox Live, as well as watch Netflix, and get all my local network channels over the air, I would think about getting rid of my cable service. If they could get Hulu streaming as well it would be great.

Actually, as the best (only?) media center extender out there, it is a perfectly good (if loud and power hungry) cable box replacement--assuming you have a tuner attached to your media center PC. :) Especially now with multi-stream cable card tuners popping up. Of course if actually replacing CABLE is the goal, then yes, it has a LONG way to go. But as a supplement to bring games not normally broadcast to your 50" Plasma, this is awesome news.

[NeilE]

You can stream Hulu to your xbox 360. Get a copy of PlayOn (http://www.playon.tv/playon) and install it on a PC in your home. We did this when had two weeks of no TV during a transition from satellite to cable and it was awesome. It gave us the ability to watch every episode of Arrested Development.

Neil

[Jon Childs]

You can stream Hulu to your xbox 360. Get a copy of PlayOn (http://www.playon.tv/playon) and install it on a PC in your home. We did this when had two weeks of no TV during a transition from satellite to cable and it was awesome. It gave us the ability to watch every episode of Arrested Development.

Neil

I actually bought PlayOn to stream Netflix to my PS3 before it was officially supported. It was nice to be able to stream Hulu, but I am just too used to high quality HD to use it all the time. I don't know if my older PC just isn't powerful enough, or if it has something to do with encoding the video an extra time, but I just didn't like the quality. It is nice to catch up on some old stuff though

[ptyork]

I actually bought PlayOn to stream Netflix to my PS3 before it was officially supported. It was nice to be able to stream Hulu, but I am just too used to high quality HD to use it all the time. I don't know if my older PC just isn't powerful enough, or if it has something to do with encoding the video an extra time, but I just didn't like the quality. It is nice to catch up on some old stuff though

I've got PlayOn, as well, and love it. However, Hulu's high quality stream is only 480p, so you'll never get a true HD encoding out of it. For me, it is fine, but yes, it certainly isn't what you'd call a state of the art viewing experience.

[Jason Dunn]

It's nice to see something start to happen in this realm - it seems like Microsoft has been squandering the opportunity that 20 million active users represents. I'd like to see them shake things up; scare the cable providers, scare Apple by offering really compelling video content, etc. Right now it's a half-assed effort. Has anyone compared the prices of HD movie rentals on Xbox vs. iTunes? iTunes is significantly less expensive. :mad: