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Xbox Live TV channel under consideration

Microsoft, ex-News Corp. president discussing possibility of hiking subscription by $1-2 a month to pay for exclusive channel aimed at young males.

373 Comments

When news of Conan O'Brien's shock deal with TBS surfaced last week, it was accompanied by reports that the flame-haired comedian might have hosted a show on Xbox Live. Today, Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft has been considering a dedicated television channel for the online game service.

Xbox 360s may soon get their own dedicated TV channel…for a price.
Xbox 360s may soon get their own dedicated TV channel…for a price.

According to the business newswire's sources, Microsoft has been in discussions with former News Corp. president Peter Chernin to create a channel exclusive to Xbox Live Gold members, who pay an $8 monthly, $20 tri-monthly, or $50 annual fee. To pay for programming and transmission costs, Chernin proposed hiking XBL Gold subscriptions $1-2 a month, or $12-24 more a year.

The Xbox Live TV channel would reportedly be co-owned by Chernin and Microsoft and would feature both reruns and original shows. Both would cater to the tastes of the "online service's young, male target audience," according to Bloomberg's sources. To that end, Chernin apparently approached O'Brien about hosting a show on Xbox Live, although the discussions (obviously) fell through.

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Avatar image for Vorodor21
Vorodor21

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I'll pass MS...not interested in this at all. On a side note, way to bat the hornet's nest that is console wars. I can only imagine the amount of stupidity this has already generated from MS and Sony fanboys.

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Locutus_Picard

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@ Timstuff At least with PSN, I don't have to pay AT ALL :lol:

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WirelessGoat

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Give us a trial at least so we can see if its any good or not.

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Avatar image for deactivated-5a5f623fa2551
deactivated-5a5f623fa2551

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@Locutus_Picard That's right! Fight! Fight for your console's honor! Defend her to the death!

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Locutus_Picard

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH serves you right, XBL defending xbots

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jameston80

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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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jojoforpres

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Worthless.

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Timstuff

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At least with Qore and The Tester I don't have to pay for them to play my games online.

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Avatar image for scotty2hotty485
scotty2hotty485

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The price will go up and 'Xbox Channel' will either never see the light of day or be completely watered down here in Canada, just like most other features.

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Avatar image for sizzlingdviper
sizzlingdviper

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I Loved my XBox Elite and Superb games like the Halo series and Gears of War.But i had to make an economic decision in the end,cos i had the 2 "Main" consoles and it didn't make much sense paying for my Gold account when i could play online for free on my Blu Ray console,so i sold my Elite.I definately wouldn't have wanted to pay extra for a tv channel-Sony have something similar started now,called First Play but at least it's optional.

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UnknownForm

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I bet I can watch this free with out paying...(*cough* Youtube and Google, *Cough*) ;)

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Avatar image for yabbal
yabbal

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If they want to implement this, they need to make it optional - why should I pay extra for a service I dont want?

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Avatar image for yang4200
yang4200

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haha more reason for MS to take those hard earn xbox fan money :)

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hannify

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Bob. give us stuff for free i can handle but make us pay and i'm not bothered. conan O'brien is rubbish anyway - jonathon ross for president

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Avatar image for deactivated-5ae060efb3bf6
deactivated-5ae060efb3bf6

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Love ya MS, but I believe I'll pass on this. Just not a good idea.

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demiurgency

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do not want!!!

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digi-demon

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MS had better not implement this TV rubbish. Live is for GAMES - this is a badly thought out idea with no plus points for REAL gamers. IMO if this happens I bet many would be tempted to permanently 'switch channel' moving to competion.

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Avatar image for snxx
snxx

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A TV Channel for Xbox? Don't they get that more and more the newer generations are abandoning altogether the ancient model of TV and relaying on the internet's websites, on-demand video, social networks and etc for their entertainment and information? Who cares about TV nowadays? Lame!

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Henninger

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I already dont like paying 4 the service so i wont b paying more if they charge more.

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melty3219

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Any TV show I want to watch is just a google search away. I don't want to pay extra for a service i wont even use.

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xFusiionx

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Good idea but I seriously don't like the idea of paying more. And besides, I already have sky player so don't require a dedicated channel especially if it means paying extra for it.

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Mcleody9

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good idea definatly - but WHY make us pay more!? i mean with the exception of sentuamessange i really dnt know why i pay for live - when i can play on my ps3 for free? i would be alot happier playing the subscription if this was included but im nto gonna pay extra for this....they're just squeezing us for more money now

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digi-demon

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Xbox Live TV = Bad Idea. End of discussion.

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Yuck_Too

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I was a XBL member for over a year in Beta before it went public and been one ever since but this is NOT something I'm happy with... I have cable for TV and I do not need to pay $25 extra for something I will never use.

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The_crapgamer

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I'd be interested in how the PS3 fanboys react or change there tune now that PS3 is offering a "Subscription Service for MLB Baseball games"

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penpusher

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erm,,,MS can get stuffed,,,I dont really want a tv channel on xboxlive,,,ive never even given the idea any thought as you see theres such a thing as gamespot, ign, gamespy the list goes on Now if MS want to bring the tv channel in as an optional thing with an extra premium then thats fair enough, but as someone (one of the majority from the looks of it) who doesnt like the idea I dont have any interest in it and thus certainly dont wanna pay for it

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penpusher

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@Get_Shorty and naked ones at that ;-)

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cheng8841

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@cptpeg I completely agree with you

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deactivated-6446beea14a1c

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lol, my online gaming goes as far as free 48h live cards come with new games; so if u wanna pay from it then pay, if u don't then don't pay. :)

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Avatar image for glhx1rush
glhx1rush

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How about "Hiking"- passing that fee onto the guys who want to watch that Stuff instead ? Sounds like the guy making this crap up should be working for our current administration. Feel free to Redistribute this channel to those willing TO PAY FOR IT.

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eyebrowless

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this better be optional or i'll be pissed

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JGoWild

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It's been so long since xbox live has been out and people have been using it, but, my question still stands, why am I paying for the service when I am using MY internet? And don't give me "Because its a better service". I liked xbox before(even tho I hate M$), but now Playstation is the only thing that I play, beside mighty PC ofc.

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Cow_tipping

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MS does not have to worry about loosing many subscribers if they up the price because people enjoy the online mulitplayer and as long as they don't give online mulitplayer for free people will pay so they can keep playing with their friends and if they cancel service then all the superior 3rd party games on the xbox360 loose some of their replay value

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reeree746

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A simple WTF will suffice.

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reeree746

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A simple question mark will suffice.

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Ilikemyname420

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Probably won't go any further than the drawing-board. Most people don't even watch the videos they already put up and those are free.

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cptpeg

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I've defended having to pay for live over the free PSN for a while now because I loved the service but if MS are going to start charging me more for crap I don't atually want and give me no choice to op out then I think I might have to cancel my membership

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Kiri90

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That's a ridiculously high increase! Guess what: If I wanted to watch TV, I'd go watch TV instead of playing games. If a fee like this were implemented, it better be for something like getting DLC for free on all new game purchases (like drangel_jam said). Microsoft wouldn't do that though because it might, God forbid, make the consumer happy.

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Avatar image for Get_Shorty
Get_Shorty

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I pay only if the channel was cheerleaders on trampolines.

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Madman19

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This should be an optional feature. I have no interest in watching tv on my xbox.

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Hvac0120

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Why should - Special Promotions, Beta Keys, Extended Friends List, Access to XBL.TV, 100 free MS points per month We can debate forever about what features are enabled at what level, but the point is that the pricing structure should change. It should be easier for MS to do this now that XBL v1.0 has been taken down.

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Cow_tipping

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i think most lemmings can afford xbox live with no problems because its their parents that are paying for the isp service while others like me that have to pay for isp would rather have the extra 30-60 bucks a year go to having higher speeds since that actually helps online gameplay unlike xbox live

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Cow_tipping

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1 to 2 extra dollars a month is nothing to lemmings they can afford anything

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xtremeflem2day

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If I was the greedy head of microsoft, I would go through with this. People will just give in and pay the extra, instead of canceling their account and buying a PS3 to support the company that is actually loyal to their customers. Too many people are idiots these days.

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Avatar image for fps_d0minat0r
fps_d0minat0r

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give me a chance to stop calling you M$ and just offer iplayer for free. millions more would watch match of the day, heroes, top gear etc.

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theBeorn

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i don't watch tv. i'm not paying for this.

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drangel_jam

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I would be more excited if they came up with a reasonable all you can eat price. I wouldn't mind paying more if they'd give us all DLC of games we buy new and register for free. For instance, if I buy a new copy of Halo Reach, and register it, my XBL account can download all of the DLC along the years for free. Something like the Amazon 2-day free delivery membership, I don't have have problem paying $75 yearly. That would serve people who buy many games per year.

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Jshaw71

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it depends whats on this channel... i want to know the line up before i say yay or nay, an extra dollar or two a month dosen't sound bad, but it depends what's on the channel wither it will hold my interest or not...

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VW_MKIII

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I feel that if they really feel the need to do this, then they should make it a free service part of what you already get for the gold subscription! They will just have to sell air space (just like any normal broadcasting company has to do) in order to make money!! I sure as hell will not pay more for it!!!

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