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Apple TV, Google TV and now. . . Microsoft TV?
With competitors pushing into the living room, Microsoft is talking to programming partners about a potential subscription TV service that would operate through its Xbox video game console.
Microsoft already has an iTunes-like entertainment offering, called Xbox Live, which allows viewers to buy individual TV shows and movies and watch them via Xbox. To those who pony up an extra $59.99, Xbox Live Gold provides access to ESPN’s online sports service, ESPN3.
Executives said Time Warner’s HBO Go could potentially land on Xbox, too, although consumers would be required to identify themselves as pay-TV customers first through an ID number.
Microsoft’s moves to lure more programming partners — first reported by Reuters — follows the revamped Apple TV, a device that allows users to rent TV shows for 99 cents, and the rollout of Google TV, a service that searches for Web content along with traditional TV programming.
As The Post first reported, Google is also in talks with Miramax to gain digital rights to its extensive film library for online streaming.
Like Microsoft, Apple and Google have talked to programmers about offering a subscription pay TV service along the lines of a cable or satellite provider but a deal has yet to materialize.
Even with all their multi-billion cash piles, tech companies have been reluctant to write the kinds of checks that Time Warner Cable and Comcast cut to big media content providers.
By some estimates, tech players would need to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in content rights fees to get a new “over-the-top service” off the ground.
“They know we expect value for our content, and the only way to get it is to pony up,” said one TV executive involved in talks.