OXMUK

Microsoft is planning to bring a subscription TV service to Xbox Live and attempted to sign up noted US talk show host Conan O'Brian, according to a report in Gamasutra.

O'Brian's executive producer Jeff Ross revealed the discussions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They took place as the Conan O'Brian Show was looking for a new home after a falling-out with network NBC. 

"It was interesting to sit and look at it and say, 'it would be great to be involved in this,' but at the end of the day, we had some eventual television offers and we basically shied away from the other," he told Gamasutra's Chris Morris.

However, the article claims that Microsoft is still looking to sign up partners for a subscription TV service that could launch in the US at the end of this year, if it can sign up enough partners. This could take a number of forms, from simply providing access to existing providers (like the Sky Player in the UK) to offering individual channels like the ESPN service in the US.

"You meet with these guys and they show you all this stuff that they're developing and it's mind blowing," Ross told the site. "I think it's coming and it's big. It's just that we weren't in a position at that point to figure out what it was."

Microsoft has made no secret of its ambitions to position the Xbox 360 as a connected entertainment device, with services like Sky Player and Last.fm being the first of many content partner deals that expand the console's ability beyond pure.

http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=25600

Oooor you could just go and get Sky Plus like everyone else in the UK

The problem with Sky player on the Xbox is not the integration of the Sky player as that works very well rather it is Sky themselves limiting the content and channels. If they expanded the content we might actually have something. This is not just a limitation of Sky player on the 360 rather it is a limitation they impose on Sky player itself even Sky produced content ironically. Unfortunately Sky do not take the Sky player seriously and that is the problem. Last.Fm on the hand is a joy to use on the Xbox.

please be in aus as well, please be in aus as well.

How cool would international channels be :o

same with foxtel in australia. THere are some channels aloud just not all. You could imagine if all were included no body would get subscription foxtel they would just buy an xbox and do it that way.

Faster internet in australia could in fact kill foxtel's subscription service in australia. Ms is clever that way.

No i ment skip the xbox part and just get the Sky Plus box ^^ 1000 channels movies and a pause buttions for live TV :D simples xD (im not a fan of consol TV when you can egt stuff 10 times better. That aplies to PlayTV aswell)

The problem with that is you have to pay sky for 999 channels of shit to get 1 moderate channel.

I do not want Sky just the Sky player. The Xbox already has a Media extender built in and a large library of movies. What I am complaining about is the poor service provided to Sky player customers who technically are paying £15 per month for the service or are paying more for regular Sky and have free access to the Sky player.

I think the £15 per month price is actually to expensive and does not compete for example with the BT Vision service and offers less. The biggest problem is that if you as an Xbox user and not a Sky customer took the Sky Player offer up you are going to fell a little let down when you realise that you are actually paying for a large chunk of test card time for programmes they choose not to put through Sky player.

Poor Conan, going from The Tonight show to xbox tv.

How does this work with a bandwidth cap? I guess it would be useless for me since I can download max 4 movies a month. Friends of mine can't even do that, they already go over with skype and online gaming.

I can only see isp's crack down further on bandwidth usage if it catches on :( I didn't have a bandwidth cap until too many people started (illegaly) downloading movies.

Or, you can just get a TV. Err wait..