Reuters: Microsoft's TV subscription plans 'on hold'

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 12th 2012 9:30AM

After years of hearing about Microsoft's poorly hidden plans for offering streaming TV subscriptions through the Xbox 360 (among other devices), Reuters is reporting that those very plans are currently stuck in a holding pattern. According to "people familiar with the discussions," Microsoft built out an infrastructure for delivering television, but upon finding out how much it would cost to deliver currently broadcast-exclusive content, walked away from talks.

"They built Microsoft TV, they demoed it for us, they asked for rate cards but then said 'ooh ah, that's expensive,'" the piece quotes one "senior media executive" as saying with regards to the negotiations. That doesn't mean that the plans are a total wash, just that they're currently not progressing.

Still, some avenues for live television are currently available and coming soon to Microsoft's Xbox 360, including a limited selection from several cable providers, as well as the just announced partnership with Newscorp which will bring Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and more to the console.

Update: Microsoft has issued this statement regarding the Reuters report, "We don't comment on rumors and speculation. Microsoft is committed to working with the world's leading TV and entertainment providers to bring their offerings to Xbox and transform the TV experience with the power of Kinect. We are continuing to launch the more than 40 new entertainment partners we have already announced, including a wide range of live and on-demand TV on Xbox. Moving forward, you can expect to see more of the world's leading entertainment providers coming to Xbox."

Source: Reuters

Tags: iptv, kinect, live-television, microsoft, report, retuers, streaming-television, web-tv, xbox

Reader Comments (42)

People wonder why Cable and Sat are so expensive, partly because the providers but mostly because the licensing fees from the stations are so expensive. Greed all over always screws the consumer...

@psyXcho

SOCIALIST!

@CaptainProtonX I don't think people got that you were kidding (I hope). Anyway, I'm way over this whole "Microsoft TV" stuff. I already have DirectTV and Netflix I barely use and couple that with the fact that the only internet service I can get is Comcast and their service is a bit unreliable especially at night which is when I'm up means that their streaming TV service wouldn't do me any good.

Let this on go Microsoft, and get back to making some first party exclusives that will justify me sticking with the Xbox please.

@Xero Theory

I am awaiting the Marxist uprising, but it was a satirical comment.

I can't stand TV in general. I'm just sticking to Youtube and Netflix for my MST3K fixes.

@CaptainProtonX Lol, too much political infighting going on for me these days, I see more of a "west side story" kind of gang war going on than a Marxist revolution but to each their own haha.

@psyXcho
lol, fox news on the 360, we need more ignorant people to listen to ignorant lies, that's what will make the country 'stronger'

@psyXcho Cable companies, movie theatres, and TicketMaster are essentially bill collectors for media companies. Hence they don't actually make much money at all from their main product. That's why movie theatres are essentially overpriced fast food places and TicketMaster charges BS fees. And why your cable company sells you internet and phone services in bundled services - it's a much higher profit margin then their primary product.

This won't stop simply because media companies need more money to produce more crap. It won't stop until piracy is legal, which will depress the absolutely outrageous prices of media content. And I'm not exactly sure if anybody here actually wants that.

@CaptainProtonX

i don't think a Marxist revolution is what we need. i know Communism has worked out so well in the past and everything... *sarcasm* ;)

i realize how enticing the very idea of Communism is (especially to youngsters). equal rights for everyone would be great, right? but it is a fundamentally flawed system, because there will always be those who work and those who feel like the world owes them something, with the latter point of view being all too prevalent in today's society, ESPECIALLY in the States.

Why would I wanna use my xbox to watch tv?

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy

The same reason people watch Netflix through the Xbox. It is one less box you need to have on your entertainment system. Also cutting out the monthly DVR rental fee is a nice bonus.

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy

So you don't have to pay the STB rental fee.

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy

If you don't have more than one cable/sat box, this gives you the chance to pipe some of the content to another room.

But I have to question how loyal people are to spend so much cash for this route. Easly $60 to $90 a month for cable alone, then the internet, then possibly a netflix account (Hulu is third tier in my book). It all gets pretty expensive in the long run.

Might as well just get another cable box.

@CaptainProtonX

My guess from the tone of the original article Microsoft was planning on replacing your cable service with its own offering, but they balked at the price. So it would not have been $60 + Netflix + Hulu it would have been Microsoft's offering for lets say $40/month (Unlimited movies/music/television streaming)

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy

Because Cable Box 360 has no Gamez 2011-2012...lolz? Well at least it has TV...oh wait

@CaptainProtonX Well, like I said above, they can just drop it and go back to focusing on making some first party exclusives instead. I have already have Netflix, and I barely use it and I have two TV's set up in my room one for my Xbox and the other for my satellite so I can play Skyrim or whatever and watch my favorite shows/UFC PPV's or whatever which means this option really wouldn't be for people like me. Not to mention I highly doubt that Microsoft could of gotten enough content to even come close to competing with any major cable company.

I wonder why they spent all the time and effort into creating an infrastructure before finding out the cost? That seems like poor planning.

@The Tim

Cooking up a demo does not automatically mean they invested heavily into an infrastructure. That being said they are still using, what I assume is part of the design, for the services they rolled out last fall.

@The Tim

Because whether it happens tomorrow or 5 years from now, its inevitably the future of entertainment.

Wow, that's pretty stupid

Why don't cable companies use gaming stations as their boxes and charge a monthly rental fee, then incorporate exclusive content. There would be an Xbox or PS3 in every home then. Someone should do this, out would be wildly successful.

@commmarine It's probably a lot more complicated than that and a lot easier said than done. There are rights issues and the whole DVR issue where they wouldn't be able to limit the amount of content you could record to your HDD. They also would also lose their revenue that they get from forcing people to rent their proprietary cable boxes. Not to mention most cable comes into your house via, well coax cable and none of the consoles have cable jacks built in so they'd either have to jerry rig a converter or have a console completely designed around the purpose or go completely streaming.

Long story short, I wouldn't hold my breathe for it. There is likely way too many factors and money to be lost and it's just not viable.

@commmarine

If they did that it would cut into their rental fees for cable boxes/dvrs. Consumer electronic companies have tried for years to get more access, but the cable company have blocked or stalled almost every initiative.

For shame. Oh well, I hardly watch my cable TV. Was going to get rid of that black hole of an investment and keep my broadband subscription; Netflix and Hulu can easily fill that minor void and save me some cash.

@Studs MacKenzie

We "cut the cord" about 2 months ago and I can say that with Netflix and Hulu I don't miss satellite at all.

@Studs MacKenzie

I cut the cord TWO YEARS ago and haven't missed it. Netflix, Hulu are fine... and moving the PC to the living to hook up to your TV is something any noob can do and there's tons of options for every price range available to do so. Just about every major network has streaming content directly from their main sites.

Microsoft = Generic Grandpas: "Alright, we'll pay for it, how much is it?" *Hears the price* "You done lost yo mind, ya'll better go read a book or something, shit."

I have both and Xbox and a ps3 (and a wii) and I pay for both yearly subscriptions. Now I love my Xbox that's all I normally play but continually paying for this fee (that has increased in the last year for the coming TV content) that only gets me to play live with friends and some "discounts" on game content and access to Netflix is kinda starting to get under my skin. Especially when all that content is free on ps3 (including Netflix) and what you actually pay for is FREE content and games (lots of good quality games). It just amazes me that we still put up with xbox live subscription fee when they offer us really nothing we couldn't get elsewhere for free and now they even charge Justin to show advertising, I don't know about you but I am pretty fed up with WoW commercials everytime I turn on my Xbox.

@meath00ks

My free subscription runs out in 3 months. there is no way I'm paying to extend it. It doesn't do anything special for the price.

@meath00ks

You mean those WoW commercials that play silently in a tiny box in the corner until you click on them? Yeah, totally intrusive.

@baby sea tuna I see a lot of people complaining about ads on XBL, but I haven't really run into any or at least any that have bothered me. Granted I use my Xbox to play games and I don't spend much time just surfing the dashboard or anything where it really bothers me. I spend about 3 seconds on the dashboard when I turn it on and I could spend even less time on there if I enabled autolaunch.

@meath00ks Whattt?!!!! You mean Chuck Norris isn't super godly awesome enough to make you play WoW, and his jokes hit the center of the earth from being driven into the ground so hard 10 years ago?!

In all seriousness, I find it sad when WoW is aging to the extent that it needs nobody old actors from the 80's to advertise.

Off-Topic.

Am I the only one who really, really doesn't like the new Live Interface? It's almost "unusable."

@malexandria

Go read Who Moved My Cheese and shut up please.

@Dirty

Oh man, I just spit my water out.

A bit unreliable? That's an understatement. I'm stuck with Comcast too. They're utter crap. I seriously wish the millions of angry customers would get together and blow up their head quarters. I'd gladly go with no Internet for that

Sadly, this doesn't really surprise me.

With content disappearing from Netflix streaming twice as fast as it's being added, and with cable fees going up every day, it seems we're stuck with corporate greed ruining our ability to get content through convenient methods.

They're still moving forward with Fox News? Yee-haw. I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I hope they offer a way to remove the widget from the interface.

Microsoft had good intentions, but the cable companies aren't going to willingly do anything to screw up their monopolies. Allowing people to pick and choose content works against everything the TV providers believe. This is what morphed into the current localized provider relationship, ie, if you have comcast, you can get comcast TV on your xbox. It'll take the government busting up these monopolies for this to ever change and they're getting paid well to make sure it doesn't happen.

@SokakuTakeda
The cable companies can continue to do nothing if they want and die just like the music labels did (or shrank rather). But content distribution has already changed, the costs have already been lowered. They can resist if they want, but it has already happened and more and more people will move forward without them.

This was all deliberate. It's a necessary step to get what MS wants. This is a lonnnnnng process to break, as the networks and studios are as slow to change income streams and content delivery as any industry out there. I'm confident MS looks at this as just another step in the long term negotiations to break the monopoly (pun intended).

I think Google, MS and Apple have similar long term plans with the cellphone carriers and moves over recent years strongly hint at it.

Fox News? Really!!? Did Microsoft forget about its partnership with NBC...you know, MSNBC!!? Or are MSNBC's ratings so bad they have to get another news organization (a corrupt and biased one at that) to represent news on the 360?

Odd choice but not at all surprised by this move. TV is the belle of the ball and everyone's trying to marry her so no one else gets in. Apple is clearly the favorite to actually do something with TV but I have my doubts that even they can make it happen at a price people can afford.

Interest that they say they don't comment on rumors and speculation as they go on to comment on the rumors.

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Reuters: Microsoft's TV subscription plans 'on hold'

Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:38AM psyXcho said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:49AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:23AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:38AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:50AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:35PM JoeTheBeast16 said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 1:35PM kmeisthax said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 2:05PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:43AM SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:58AM spid said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:58AM BlazeKing said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:59AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:23AM spid said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:26AM eescala7 said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:36AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:47AM The Tim said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:53AM spid said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:18AM Dirty said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 9:59AM eat it said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:09AM commmarine said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:32AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:34AM spid said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:29AM Studs MacKenzie said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:20AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 2:02PM HandsomeBoyGraduate said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:32AM Miranda Lawson said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:41AM meath00ks said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:10AM eat it said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:21AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:47AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 4:33PM manbearchef said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:08AM malexandria said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:17AM Dirty said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:23AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 3:30PM Teeree said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:31AM Vcize said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:41AM jstengren said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 11:51AM SokakuTakeda said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:37PM fohf said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 1:27PM Darth Tigris said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 3:44PM incredibilistic said

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