Microsoft's jumped into the market for downloading video into the living room, via the Xbox 360. According to the New York Times:
Owners of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console will soon be able to watch science fiction epics as well as play them.
Microsoft said last night that it would offer movies and episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Live online service in the United States, starting Nov. 22.
With the new offerings, Microsoft is joining cable giants and Internet start-ups on the long list of companies hoping to profit from video downloading. But Internet-based services have had trouble getting traction because it can be complex to send a downloaded film to a television screen and frustrating to watch it on the small screen of a computer. Owners of the Xbox have already connected it to a TV and, in most cases, the Internet.
“What makes this big is that there’s no PC in the middle,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
In the last few years, Microsoft has been pushing the idea of Media Center PCs, which are meant to sit in the living room and supply music and video to the stereo and the television set. But the concept has not caught on, in part because of the complexity of setting up and using these systems.
A few interesting things about this announcement:
Just as with Zune, Microsoft's end-running their own platform-and-ecosystem pitch built around Windows to address a consumer electronics market with a closed, vertically integrated system. With Xbox 360, Microsoft controls the device and the service providing the content. This has the virtue of simplifying the experience for the customer. As the Times article notes, cobbling together a system around the Media Center PC spec hasn't proved very popular outside a hard core of early adopters. Given the success Apple has had with video content for iPods, it's interesting to see Microsoft leverage Xbox rather than Zune as their platform. Then again, perhaps that bit of integration can wait for later
The content on offer seems very targeted at the mythical Xbox owner: dudes. Cartoons from Adult Swim, classic "Star Trek" episodes, and "Jackass: The Movie" all speak to the MAXIM-reading demo that seems to buy the preponderance of Xboxen (and to the Viacom-heavy character of the deals Microsoft has struck, although Warner's in there, too). Makes you wonder how far into the mainstream this offering will actually go on the Xbox platform without some radical change in who buys and uses these things.
Some of the service's details are also notable: HD is a pretty big deal. Video on the iTunes store is passable, but hardly DVD-quality. The ability to re-download purchases (which means you can log into your Xbox Live profile over a friend's Xbox 360 and see the movies you've purchased) is very convenient, but practically limited to television shows; your movie downloads are rentals that "disappear" after 24 hours. This re-download-ability is designed in part to address one of the shortcomings of having a console at the heart of a video to the home strategy. As the Wall Street Journal notes:
[T]he Xbox 360 has limited storage capacity. Xbox 360 users will be able to store only about 16 hours of standard-quality video and about 4½ hours of high-definition video on the machine, room for only a smattering of movies and television shows. For users who delete television shows to make room for additional content, Microsoft says they will be able to download previously purchased shows again at no charge.
You can be sure that Sony and Nintendo are both considering similar offerings, adding to the clutter around video on demand.
Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360, video on demand, Media Center PC