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Microsoft stands to generate $92 million USD in 2007 and $762 million USD in 2011 from Xbox Live Video Marketplace

Microsoft launched its Xbox Live Video Marketplace for North American customers on November 22, 2006. The online movie and TV show portal has already become a hit for Microsoft’s year-old Xbox 360 gaming console and, at CES, Microsoft announced that it was adding Lionsgate to its list of content partners which includes CBS, MTV, Paramount, TBS, UFC and Warner Bros.

The expanded portfolio of partners combined with an Xbox 360 install base that is nearing 6 million users is paying off for Microsoft. According to a report from Emerging Media Dynamics, Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace will generate $92 million USD in 2007 and as much as $762 million USD by 2011.

"In nearly two months, Xbox has become our second highest performing digital distributor. COMEDY CENTRAL is thrilled to continue this partnership and is working to bring more and more content to Video Marketplace in the coming year," said Caleb Weinstein, senior vice president, strategy and business development for Comedy Central. "In fact, Xbox 360 has become one of the top distributors of our content direct to consumers' TV sets over the Internet," said Andrew Mellett, vice president of video on demand for Warner Bros.

Movies and TV shows are purchased through Xbox Live Video Marketplace by using Microsoft Points, the online currency for the Xbox 360. Using the freely available Microsoft Points Converter, pricing for digital content is as follows:

New Movie Releases

  • 720p: $6.00
  • 480p: $4.00

Library Movies

  • 720p: $4.50
  • 480p: $3.00

Television Shows

  • 720p: $3.00
  • 480p: $2.00

Variety reported late last year that the Xbox Live Video Marketplace was becoming a breakout star in the online digital movie downloads sector while services like Amazon.com's Unbox have faltered. Apple has also been surprisingly mum about its movie download service for iTunes since it announced that it had sold 125,000 movies within its first week of availability.

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Apple TV will *NEVER* live up to this..
By Enoch2001 on 1/18/2007 12:47:32 AM , Rating: 2
You wanna' know why? Because there are *MILLIONS* of people who already have Xbox 360's in there homes to play video games, so it's easy to use it as a media extender.

Why would I spend the amount of money Apple wants for their box when all it does is stream music/video? I mean the GUI is sweet - admittedly - but it ends there. Plus, the HD playback is crippled IMHO.

Xbox Live rawks in all facets...





RE: Apple TV will *NEVER* live up to this..
By jas8522 on 1/18/2007 5:44:35 AM , Rating: 2
Yes that's certainly fair, but think about the number of people who don't want or need a video game console that's extremely loud and sucks all your power? Yes I know they're coming out with a new version that won't do all that, however at what cost? I believe (and could very well be wrong) that it is more expensive than the AppleTV.

Not to mention the fact that the 360 will only stream content from a Windows MCE computer, whereas the AppleTV will work from any PC or Mac!

I see how both have their upsides and downsides, but in the end of it all the AppleTV *could* take out the 360 in terms of market share for streaming video devices for the following reasons:

1) AppleTV will likely be cheaper than 360 for same stuff
2) AppleTV may (I don't know for sure) stream pirated content
3) Xbox360 is considered a gaming device, so a larger (probably much larger) section of the market is looking for something to play their videos on their TV wirelessly without the need to play any games
4) Cross Platform compatibility. It may even work with Linux if someone has got Bonjour working on it (as I'm assuming it uses bonjour for this one...)

Jordan


RE: Apple TV will *NEVER* live up to this..
By jas8522 on 1/18/2007 5:46:18 AM , Rating: 2
I guess my second point is moot as the 360 streams pirated content from a media center machine right?


By Aikouka on 1/18/2007 8:17:32 AM , Rating: 2
Using certain free and legit programs, the XBOX 360 can stream any media from any Windows XP or higher machine. Supposedly WMP11 allows for better streaming as well, but I haven't tried it to see its limits.

It'd be nice, but transcoding the files seemed to cut a tiny bit off the beginning and my media PC is hooked up to my HDTV anyway... so I just use my old ATi RF remote and navigate the PC with that.


By phir3 on 1/18/2007 4:38:27 PM , Rating: 2
yes u can .. i stream all my pirated DivX movies and any other format from my WMC PC through the 360. There are a few free apps out there that make this possible as MS doesnt support these formats by default. It isnt the easiest thing to setup but most hacks usually aren't.


By novacthall on 1/18/2007 8:58:19 AM , Rating: 2
A slight correction:
quote:
Not to mention the fact that the 360 will only stream content from a Windows MCE computer, whereas the AppleTV will work from any PC or Mac!

I've got XP Professional and it will stream from that. I have no clue about XP Home because honestly, who wants that garbage?


By novacthall on 1/18/2007 8:55:25 AM , Rating: 2
That was kind of my reaction when I heard about Apple TV. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how it's useful to me. So far, all I have managed to understand about the device is that
A) It lets you pull stuff from iTunes over to your TV, and
B) It's Apple.

Since I've purchased exactly nothing from the iTMS since acquiring my iPod in 2004, point A is moot (restrictive bitrates are physical proof of the devil). Since I don't worship at the altar of the cult of Mac, I'm indifferent on point B. As you've already pointed out, though, the 360 already does what Apple TV is supposed to do, but so much more.

For example, with little to no pain and suffering, I was able to pull everything that my Windows Media Player sees over to my 360, streaming over my home network. Whether I want to play the few hundred songs from my music library through my home theatre set or make my own soundtrack for Burnout or Saint's Row, I've got options. I don't really see Apple TV giving me options, but perhaps I just don't understand the device fully.

It seems that Microsoft actually sort of beat Apple to the punch this time. Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?


Only 6 bucks?
By Natfly on 1/18/2007 10:50:54 AM , Rating: 2
6 dollars seems incredibly cheap for a new release movie at 720p. Add in the fact that you can download this on any xbox360 once you've purchased it, it makes me wonder how they got the studios to agree to it.




RE: Only 6 bucks?
By DCstewieG on 1/18/2007 11:18:40 AM , Rating: 2
Movies are 48 hour rentals. TV shows are for keeps.


RE: Only 6 bucks?
By Natfly on 1/18/2007 11:44:59 AM , Rating: 2
Oh, nevermind then. 4 bucks for 480 isnt bad I guess, and is on par with brick and mortar prices.


Nice
By jlmadyson on 1/17/2007 6:11:02 PM , Rating: 5
Love this service.




why no CANADA
By mjz on 1/17/2007 11:33:19 PM , Rating: 2
i would purchase movies every once in a while if they had it available in canada. like come on!




RE: why no CANADA
By Canadian Eurasian on 1/18/2007 11:58:58 AM , Rating: 2
I know the Canadian market isn't as large as the US... But i know at least a dozen people with x360s that would love to be able to access the same xbox live features as our American neighbours. MS, if you're listening, there is money to be made off of us Canadians! (If the money talk doesn't get their attention, nothing will).

I realize there is probably some licensing problems with providing us content. Hopefully things work out.


Joost
By borowki on 1/18/2007 2:19:26 AM , Rating: 2
Microsoft ought to acquire the Joost technology and put it in the Xbox 360. Then it becomes a killer media box.




RE: Joost
By phir3 on 1/18/2007 4:36:40 PM , Rating: 2
They do ..... its called IPTV .. out at the end of the year


Points system
By y7bb6 on 1/18/2007 5:52:01 PM , Rating: 2
Doesn't xbox use the points system where you don't actually pay in dollars but like using 80points=$1.




Non-gamers.
By somegeek on 1/17/07, Rating: -1
RE: Non-gamers.
By KaiserCSS on 1/17/2007 7:18:31 PM , Rating: 4
Better yet, we should demand a larger hard drive. What in the world were they thinking by only giving me 13GB of usable space?


RE: Non-gamers.
By MrDiSante on 1/17/2007 7:45:54 PM , Rating: 2
No clue... I modded mine - take apart the hard drive + ghost trick, 100 gigs isn't as much as I'd like, but I can live with it. As for somegeek - it's not meant to be popular as a stand-alone service. It's meant to be as incentive to buy the 360 - it has little value to Microsoft on its own (or at least was envisioned as such).


RE: Non-gamers.
By mrgq912 on 1/17/2007 8:22:12 PM , Rating: 4
Hey I heard about this hard drive mod, but isn't it true that that MS will recognize your larger hard drive over Live and kick you out from live. I want to try but I don' t want to be booted from live and lose my gamer tag.


RE: Non-gamers.
By mrgq912 on 1/18/2007 9:42:50 AM , Rating: 3
Upgrade your Xbox 360 Hardrive
Published by rs6_n2o on 2006-03-28
Category: HardDrive | Page Views: 12714

Required Items
Ok, heres a list of things you will need.

1. A motherboard on your computer that supports SATA hard drives
2. Another SATA hard drive (HDD)
3. Norton Ghost or any program that will make an exact copy of your existing drive onto the new one
4. A Torx screwdriver

Upgrade your Xbox 360 Harddrive
1. First you will need to take the hard drive off the 360 and take it apart.

2. Now, connect both the xbox 360 harddrive and the new SATA drive to your computer.

3. Once both drives are connected run Norton Ghost and clone the original Xbox 360 HDD files over to the new hard drive.

BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO OVERWRITE YOUR HDD.. I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!


4. Once you have cloned the harddrive take the new hard drive and put it into the Xbox 360 HDD enclosure.

5. Stick it back onto your Xbox 360 and it should run fine.


RE: Non-gamers.
By mrgq912 on 1/18/2007 9:46:33 AM , Rating: 2
http://www.divineo.com/cgi-bin/div-us/dd-360-xusb....

If u don't want to physically take apart teh hard drive case on the 360 buy the above item.