Lots of sites are reporting on Microsoft's talks with the BBC about providing downloadable TV content for Xbox Live. The two are apparently working out a deal to make programmes like Planet Earth available on-demand in Europe. Microsoft already runs a video-on-demand service for Xbox 360 owners in the US, signing content deals with the likes of Warner Bros, MTV, CBS and Paramount, but the complications of having to draw up different deals for different territories has kept the concept from expanding.
There's no news yet on whether gamers would be charged for the service although, as Gamasutra points out, BBC content is usually transmitted free in this country due to licensing fee funding. However, would VoD content be classed as a transmission? If not, there's no reason why the BBC couldn't charge for it - the corporation does, after all, sell a range of DVDs based on its shows. In the US, Xbox Live users pay in Microsoft Points - 320 for a movie (480 for an HD movie) or 160 for a single TV programme. Users get to keep the TV stuff, but films are 'rented' for a two-week period.
Of course, Microsoft is not the only console manufacturer with VoD ambitions. Sony has repeatedly talked of plans to launch a similar service. At Leipzig, the company announced a deal with Sky to make some of its content available via PSP. And reports from the US suggest the company is looking to replace its failed Connect service with some kind of video download option for PS3.
So would you buy UK TV content via a games console? Or are you more interested in dedicated offerings like BT Vision or iPlayer? I'm really not sure its the killer app that the console bigwigs seem to think it is. You only have to look at the success of Wii - which wittily appropriates the language of the broadcast media with its channel system, without going through the expense and rigmarole of actually providing a download service - to see that neat, innovative game ideas are more valuable than media hub solutions. However, Microsoft did announce earlier this year that Xbox Live downloads in the US had increased by 400 percent since the video service went live the previous November (more here).
TV or not TV, that is the question. Sorry.
