ESPN and Microsoft have announced Xbox LIVE downloads:
Effective immediately, fans of all ages can access a growing catalog of marquee sporting events and timely programming, including full-length NCAA college football and basketball games, Summer X Games 13, “World Series of Poker,” “The Contender,” “Madden Nation” and much more on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the leading high-definition video download service.
I obviously support additional partners and digital downloads, but I wonder how many will pay for a game 48 hours after broadcast? As a college football fan, I know the outcomes of all the meaningful games and have no interest in watching old sports programming… for a fee. Especially, since the first batch of games (above) are SD only. However, what I might pay for is something like DirecTV’s Superfan “Short Cuts” — an entire game condensed into 30 minutes or less. Get creative, people!
The press release also goes on to say that Xbox LIVE delivers:
more than 3,200 hours of premium entertainment content from more than 30 studios and networks
While Microsoft does offer quite a bit of content (including a percentage in HD), I take issue with the use of premium… Last week, Melissa and I were looking for a movie to watch and the New Releases (below) didn’t motivate us to make a purchase. In Microsoft’s defense, content offerings (including resolutions and download conditions) are largely dictated by the studios (that distributors like MS have relationships with). The future can’t get here soon enough – when all movies are available for Internet rental in any resolution I choose (on various hardware platforms, such as TiVo) and with a more efficient way to navigate the catalog. Microsoft would also be wise to dump Points in favor of dollars to speed adoption.
The bosses at Fox tell me the internet is dead…