No suprises in this announcement: if you have an Xbox 360 then it's almost certainly connected to your TV set and to the net, so downloading and streaming videos is an obvious feature, and Xbox Live already has Microsoft Points as a way of paying for them. From November 22, the US service will offer both "downloads to own" and "videos to rent". The New York Times says:
Microsoft has negotiated the rights to rent or sell more than 1,000 hours of material from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting, along with the martial arts show "Ultimate Fighting Championship." Some programs will be available in high-definition video.
The video store will work much like that of Apple Computer, with some important differences. While users will be able to keep television shows, movies can only be rented for a 24-hour period. The videos will not be playable on other devices and cannot be burned onto DVDs, but the online service will keep track of purchases so users can log in to watch their videos on a friend's Xbox.
Microsoft has a list of the initial offerings in its press release. CNet has screen shots.
Comment: A couple of years ago, Microsoft announced TV and movie downloads for playback on portable media center devices, which failed to catch on. In the future, it's not hard to predict that the Xbox Live service will be extended to include portable Zune players.
