Microsoft partners with Netflix to offer streaming content on Xbox live
By TJ Kirchner
At the E3 Media and Business Summit Microsoft announced a partnership with Netflix, which will see Netflix content on Xbox Live.
This fall, those that have an Xbox Live Gold membership and a Netflix subscription will be able to stream movies and TV shows from their Netflix accounts directly to their Xbox at no additional cost. That means that the Xbox 360 will be the one TV connected device that has the most movies and TV shows on demand.
According to Yahoo, members will be able to add content to their instant queues from the Netflix website and see it displayed on their Xbox. A movie takes around 30 seconds to download. Plus, once its playing, users will be able to pause, fast-forward, stop, etc. using their Xbox controllers or media remote.
Netflix is offering Microsoft their entire library of 10,000 stream-able movies and TV shows. This includes some academy award winner/nominee movies, as well as shows from popular, classic, and current TV series. Twenty-four of these movies are rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest films ever. In addition, Microsoft is striking deals with NBC and Universal to add movies like 30 Rock, Battlestar Galatica, and The Office to their Video Marketplace.
John Schappert, vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIFE, Software and Services Business at Microsoft had this to say.
Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room… We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.
Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix, also expressed a positive vision.
Netflix and Xbox 360 are a perfect combination, the leading online movie rental service and the leading games and entertainment system joining forces to create an all-in-one entertainment experience with content for everyone… For Netflix, it represents an important step forward in making instantly streaming movies on the TV more broadly available to our members.
Ars Technica brought up a good point when they reminded us that Microsoft has been trying to build a competitive edge for the Xbox 360 against Sony’s PS3 by focusing on offering downloadable content, rather than supporting Blu-ray high definition disks. However, downloading high definition content off the internet still takes a long time. Some people might be more inclined to just buy or rent the blu-ray disk to watch their high definition, rather than wait for it to load off the net.
I still don’t think it’s a far-fetched idea for Microsoft to sell an external Blu-ray player attachment for the Xbox 360, to at least cover that end of the market. Plus, it maybe a good idea if a “Buy It Now” button was integrated into the Xbox for Netflix users that want to buy a movie they just watched. Either way, I think this an excellent addition to the Xbox 360 and its going to give its customers a huge value and give Sony a run for their money.
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July 15th, 2008
At first I thought that maybe they need the Bluray player but after browsing through the tons of content that 360 has to offer you start to realize you don’t need the same thing twice. Downloading is not an issue if you have a good internet high speed service. The buying movies option I definately agree with, this should be implemented.