Verizon FiOS kicking off Xbox 360 streaming TV with 26 channels for subscribers

@Spaceghost

....and I'm not sure about the rest of you but value is the only thing I really care about with an announcement like this.

@Spaceghost I'll be saving an outlet by getting rid of a cable box I rarely use by signing up for this. There's certainly a benefit, though I guess not many people will see it.

@Spaceghost

Agreed. My cable company went all digital so unless you get a crappy mini box or shell out dough for a dvr you may be out of luck. I have a television that does not have a built in digital tuner so it would help me if my cable company signed up for this.

@Spaceghost

Yeah, but...if you have FiOS TV, FiOS internet, and XBL gold....I seriously doubt you have money problems.

Either that or you have so many money problems that this won't help at all.


I was cautiously hopeful that this would be usable just over FiOS internet, which i have, but of course it isn't. Not paying for FiOS TV so I can watch 26 channels on my xbox....

@R Planteer

Or you have all those things because you save where you can.

@Spaceghost

a cable box rental and a free socket are good things?

Where the fcuk is the optimism in every other article from you guys?

@Spaceghost
Everyone's situation is different, but that is really trying hard to find a tiny diamond in huge tub of crap.

Unless you're in college or have roommates, the only people with their Xboxes in a '2ndary room' are kids. Most adults have their game system front and center in the living space.

Even then... sacrifice a $5 monthly fee for the cable box, to pay for 100 or so channels and be able to view... 26 of them. Ok. I don't see the value in that at all.

BTW... let's be silly and pretend that everyone has the most basic cable service... $60 a month... times 12 months...$720 a year. That's equal to 2 perfectly good HTPCs (either net tops or laptops), or at least a Mac Mini + Apple TV, if one is an Apple fan. Or 2/3 of the cost of a powerful PC/Mac that still can double as an HTPC. Once you get that all hooked up to your TVs, you've got your Over-The-Air HD channels, TV network websites, Hulu, Netflix, and plenty of other low-cost or free, LEGAL options that don't require cable. We'll disregard all those super-easy illegal options while still mentioning it in this sentence.

Things like this or HBO Go just shows that the cable companies either still don't get it, or just THAT stuck in their old ways. I said $60 a month, but we all know in reality people are paying a lot more than just for the cable services when you add all the options and taxes. Consumer spend their hard earned money on this service and the cable companies act like its a privilege to be able to utilize this service on more than 1 screen. Its a sham.

The only thing I would agree on is major sports fans... its somewhat hard to really find a legal outlet for every single sport live. Those types would need to have cable.

Even worse... let's say for a moment that I did find this service interesting enough to make me wanna subscribe to VZW Fios--- Ah, yes, Fios not available in my area. Ah well.

@Spaceghost

XBL costs $60/yr = People freak out about the cost

XBL saves people $180/yr (no cable box rental) = This is totally useless.

Someone explain that logic to me.

@HandsomeBoyGraduate

"BTW... let's be silly and pretend that everyone has the most basic cable service... $60 a month... times 12 months...$720 a year. That's equal to 2 perfectly good HTPCs (either net tops or laptops), or at least a Mac Mini + Apple TV, if one is an Apple fan. Or 2/3 of the cost of a powerful PC/Mac that still can double as an HTPC. Once you get that all hooked up to your TVs, you've got your Over-The-Air HD channels, TV network websites, Hulu, Netflix, and plenty of other low-cost or free, LEGAL options that don't require cable. We'll disregard all those super-easy illegal options while still mentioning it in this sentence."

While I agree with some of what you said, you are ignoring some other factors here. People often pay their cable for the sheer convenience. Beyond even the sports, which you mentioned, most people aren't going to want to bother navigating a PC or setting up a front end like XBMC just to watch TV. You are basically trying to cobble together a bunch of different services to even begin to match what cable offers in one easy package. And the video quality of many of the TV streaming sites doesn't come remotely close to the HD via cable. OTA stuff is often better.... when it works. But OTA selection and reception quality varies wildly depending on where you live.

@HandsomeBoyGraduate

While I do admit, the savings I am talking about are quite small and probably wont be taken advantage of my most users, I have to disagree with you on a couple key parts. Firstly, with the newest dashboard update and the ability to use the same live account on multiple Xbox's I think the cheapest way to cut the cord would actually be to just go out and buy another Xbox for

@Spaceghost

Always interesting to come back an hour later and find that only half of my comment was posted...

@Spaceghost The rental cost of an STB is somewhat offset by the cost of an Xbox Live gold subscription for each Xbox.

Seriously, Microsoft, why do I need to pay you $60/yr to use the media features of my own damn box?!

@baby sea tuna

A la carte will come one day. But, damn, I keep wondering for how many more years the cable companies can Fight The Future, and postpone the inevitable.

Oh, well, I can wait. My kids don't even remember what it's like to have cable, or to have to sit through commercials on their shows. They just fire up their Netflix / Amazon streaming, and do their thing. And NFL games look so much prettier on my HD antenna then they did through Comcast's lossy compression pipes.

@copa

But I am pissed that Microsoft raised the price of Gold $10/year so that I have to help subsidize these dumb co-marketing promotions that nobody will actually use.

@baby sea tuna

exactly this xbox TV stuff would be great if you also dint have to also have to pay other services on top of everything else, wasn't this the reason they raised the subscription fee to bring us new stuff.

I'm sorry live TV is cool and all but I also have things like a computer and are just a few clicks away from watching whatever I want, for free, granted I have to change to the PC channel on my TV and turn off my xbox, but I guess that's a price I'll happily pay

@copa The service launched in 2002 at $50/year and is now $60/year (if you are dumb enough to pay full price instead of grabbing discounted membership cards online). Compare the range of service from 2002 to today, its a wonder the rate didnt move for 8 years.

@baby sea tuna

Its a shame that NHL and MLB get paid handsomely for blackouts, otherwise I would dump cable and just use Gamecenter. Sadly, only a handful of Flyers games are on NBC each year.

@Clydeftones - I should add $50 in 2002 is the equivalent of $60.23 in 2010 based on mere inflation.

@Clydeftones - I've been getting yearly XBL Gold cards to damn-well-near dirt cheap. Gotta love retail partnerships with Microsoft (probably one of the few good things to come of retail)!

@MaulerX

This is one only provider that is being announced. There are a lot more that are signing up with MS.

@moroboshi

A-la-carte would be sweet but it won't happen, at least not soon and not through first party providers. The next best thing is an after market media provider like Netflix which will get the content afterwards.

Reason being is that in order for us to enjoy fine programming like 1000 ways to Die and American Pickers, channels must be bunched or else suffer a low viewer base and die. If there was a-la-carte, Sy-fi, Speed Channel, others, would not have enough installer-base to apease the cable providers. It's just WAY more profitable for them to be bunched right now.

@moroboshi

as mentioned, the cable companies don't want ala carte, and even more, the cable CHANNELS don't want ala carte.

you have to understand how the money is distributed around:

viewer pays cable company
cable company takes a cut then pays cable channels

if i'm paying verizon cable 90/month, part of my 90 is going to the oprah winfrey network even though i never watch that channel

in an ala carte situation, the cable company gets cut out or reduced, and oprah gets cut out when i decide to only pay for the ESPN family

back to the actual topic, requiring verizon's fios isp basically will kill this entire venture, its availability is so tiny, and growing so slowly, the feature will be forgotten by the majority before they even have the option of picking it up.

I mean really, its not available in CHICAGO? i can understand some of the smaller towns, but that's one of the largest markets in the US

FiOS is not available in BOSTON either.

FiOS sucks anyways, it's incredibly fast with huge amounts of bandwidth and they still charge you $49.99 for 10/2mb plans the cable companies offer. It's a ridiculous rip off.

Also according to this thread they only give you one cable box in the plan, sounds like a major rip-off.

But that's why I haven't had cable for 7 years or so.

@shimrra74
Because it is want people want and more younger people are likely to use it. Second if I can replace a cable box for my xbox and not pay the extra fee a month, sold. Game consoles are becoming media consoles which I'm all for. I use my xbox to play games and stream movies/TV from my PC.

@shimrra74 the same reason Baseball went from being americas game to the worlds game , cause thiers money to made & expand to people intrest & draw them in so said profits continues grow.

@DMS0205 - I only get charge $5 for the box. So its not really that huge of an impact to my overall monthly bill.

My whole issue is if these consoles want to add everything into there systems go right ahead but then make it al la carte. I dont want to have to pay more for a service I will only use the bare minimum.

@shimrra74

I love when people complain about completely optional features that they can choose to either use or not use.

Nothing you like about your xbox is going away. You're just getting more options. You're getting more features than you payed for.

@shimrra74
Your example can also be flipped around. Rather than "why would I want to fire up my xbox and wait for this and that etc etc etc", it could also be said (and this is what MS is pushing for and many other users are moving toward) - "Why would I want to turn my Xbox off, just to watch TV, when I already do all my video streaming, Netflix movie watching & Hulu TV viewing through it?". I've cut the cable TV cord & therefore have little interest in the current incarnation of what they are adding, since they can't yet offer ala carte channels, but my 360 is pretty much always running and has become the defacto entertainment center in my living room. Adding cable channels to that (if I had Cable) would actually be more convenient, not less. I'm sure it MS could add the entire FiOS channel package, so it wasn't a limited selection of what subscribers have on their normal TV package, they would. It's likely just held back by contractual issues at this point.

@swooded

Well, realistically, people with cable boxes often leave them on 24 hours a day anyway. So flipping the argument around doesn't really apply to many people.

@Vidikron
That's not really my point at all. I do understand that not everyone uses their 360 as their main entertinment hub though, and to them all these additions are pointless. I was simply pointing out that many people are now using the 360 as the main entertainment device and, as such, they/we appreciate all these additions. IE, to me it's not "why would I want to turn ON my xbox just to do X" it's "Why would I want to turn my xbox OFF just to do X". I'm personally not debating the cable box vs 360 issue that everyone else has already covered. I was just responding to Shimra's comment that was lamenting the inclusion of all this new media on what, they seem to feel, should be a system to play games on and nothing more. Obviously we all want different things & nobody is right or wrong really, but the reality is: MS wants their console to be an complete top to bottom entertainment hub & many users are embracing and enjoying that, as they continue to expand content avaialble. Others are still absolutely capable of only firing up the console to play games and nothing more. End of the day, this addition doesn't really hurt anyone that already has Cable / Live - it just adds another option,

@iPear

I'm loathe to say this but: "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

@iPear

Mmmm. Bagel Bites.

@DMS0205
Probably because that would involve Verizon installing fios into your house which in and of itself can take 4-6 hours to do... not to mention maintenance and upkeep.

@ItsameMatt03 in the same boat as you lets hope this deal or something to this effect is for all cable & internet providers, cause Fios is nowhere near my part of the woods .

@ItsameMatt03 Comcast has a similar deal in the works and AT&T has has supported the 360 as a full functionaly STB for quite a while now.

@mikeymilkshake

thank you for having sense