Microsoft is reportedly working on offering online pay television service from providers like Comcast and Verizon though the company’s Xbox Live service. Microsoft is attempting to channel more entertainment features to its popular entertainment and gaming console.
Microsoft is apparently in talks with more than two dozen music, sports, movies, and TV show providers in the United States and Europe in an effort to expand the Xbox Live streaming service as soon as next week, from what Bloomberg reports.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been promoting the Xbox 360 as an entertainment console that allows you to switch between video games, DVDs, and pay television. Ballmer has stated that by Christmas of this year, Microsoft will be adding the Bing search engine to the Xbox 360, with Kinect voice support to browse through tv shows.
“We all know the frustrations of using guides and menus and controllers, and we think a better way to do all of this is simply to bring Bing and voice to Xbox. You say it, Xbox finds it,” Ballmer stated.
Microsoft is expected to secure a deal with Time Warner’s HBO cable channel, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Crackle streaming service, NBC Universal’s Bravo, SyFy network, and Lovefilm UK.
