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From MSFT's side, I think it's more about adding value to their already excellent Xbox Live Gold service, and if they attract more customers to subscribe to Gold because of the features they're adding, great.
On the other hand, I've been a cord cutter for years. Why pay for a ton of content I don't care about when I can get most of the content I want for free? The rest of the content I want can either be watched via my quite cheap streaming-only Netflix account or by purchasing DVDs.
This Verizon FiOS deal doesn't do much for me. It's much the same as the Hulu deal with MSFT where you can only access the Hulu content on XBL Gold if you subscribe to Hulu Plus (which I have no reason or desire to do). Because the cable companies refuse to change, they're becoming irrelevant.
Yeah, well, it might not do a lot of that. I picked up an xbox at a garage sale with the intention of using it solely for streaming netflix. I didn't know that you had to subscribe to MS's service to be able to do that. It angered me, as Netflix doesn't (or shouldn't) actually use the xbox live service, doesn't add any value to the netflix service, almost doubles the cost of the service, and I'd get to give yet more money to Microsoft in exchange for exactly nothing.
The xbox went to the goodwill, and I've warned a few other people who were thinking of doing the same thing to avoid using the xbox for it. If Microsoft was a little less greedy, they may have actually sold me some games and made some money from me, instead of leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
I think you vastly underestimate how much you'd pay on an a la carte basis for the niche channels you list. AMC Networks has operating expenses of about $750 million. They obviously get revenue from ad sales, but the bulk of their revenue comes from cable operators. If instead of receiving payments from the 96 million US households that get AMC programming, they had to be paid by the households that actually want AMC programming (their highest-rated program, The Walking Dead, drew 6.6 million viewers Sunday night), the costs would be very high.
Cable providers just don't git it. All there off brand channels are only financially successful because of bundling channels. If you AMC's viewership is 96 Million, just think how few other really off brand cable channels reach.
I cut the cord about 2-3 years ago. Subscribed to NetFlix. Haven't looked back, doubt I will. Wake me up with HBO and Showtime(the only two cable offerings I really miss) are available w/o a monthly subscription to the crap that currently goes with them, and I'm in.
Would like to make a post about xbox .During the summer I paid for internet for the house so my boys had a gold membership that stopped in august .I find out today that my credit card has been charged the last 2 months for live which we do not use nor new we had .I run my laptop off my phone .If you think you have to have live I would wipe out your credit card info from your unit as I was told by Microsoft ANYONE can get into it and you to will be paying someone's funtime .Microsoft being the greedy people they are would of course not refund my money .
I'm a bit confused by the article. I think the author is ranting a little too much against cable companies and just not appreciating what is happening here. Picture this: Your house doesn't have every single room wired with a coaxial cable. You don't want to spend a ton of money wiring your house. You've got a room you would like your kids to watch Nick, Nick Jr, or Cartoon Network but this room has no coaxial. Now here's where it gets interesting. Your Xbox 360 is streaming live TV through the Internet. This isn't pre-recorded data files sitting on a Netflix or Hulu server. This is LIVE TV being streamed straight to your Xbox 360 through Wfi. In other words, this is (as far as I know) the first time you've been able to watch cable TV wirelessly. Sure there's the added expense of Xbox Live Gold but you can get those cards cheap if you look for discounts/sales AND you're not renting a cable box for $5-$10 a month.
However just got home and tried to get it online where I was greeted with: "The current profile is not allowed to play on Xbox Live". Now, I don't know why this is? Do I not have a Gold account? I was pretty sure I did have one: as I watch Netflix and use the WWE Network all the time?
EDIT: I found one of those 2 days guest passes and put in the code, it gave me the message "You already have an Xbox Live Gold account on this system, give the code to a friend so they can see blah blah blah..."
I am having the same problem but I know I have xbox live it will allow me to play on my sister's account but when I try and play on my account an error just pops up saying: The current profile is not allowed to play on xbox live.
There is a lot to be excited about with this new Xbox Live update scheduled... um... sometime (they keep changing it - currently slated for Autumn 2009 which, by my calendar, is right now). If you are really hooked on social networks, Facebook and Twitter functionality is for you. If you've been looking for a way to stream Internet Radio into your home theater, you'll love Last.Fm. If you are an avid downloader of video content, you'll be excited not only by the 1080p resolution of the new Zune Marketplace, but also the ability to start the video while you are downloading (called Instant Streaming). While the official update has not been released, I've been invited into the beta which is probably pretty close to what you'll experience when it does go live. Realize, however, that some or all of my concerns might be addressed before the final version and, knowing Microsoft, some of my favorite features might be modified, mangled, or lost.
One thing to remember is that all of these services require an Xbox Live Gold account. A Gold account costs around $50 a year. Facebook, Twitter, and Last.Fm all are free to use with a free subscription from the Internet. It makes more sense for Microsoft to enable Silver members (Silver is free but is extremely limited) access to at least Twitter and Facebook. I could understand how Last.Fm might hog enough bandwidth to require a paid subscription but how much does it cost Microsoft to give access to Facebook and Twitter? Maybe a lot but I don't see how.
While these are two different services, they really are similar enough that grouping them makes sense. It seems that just about everyone is trying to get their content on to or their devices connected to one or both of these services. At the same time, Facebook and Twitter are trying to figure out how to make themselves profitable (edit - an employee of Facebook reminded me that they announced profitability in September). That aside, my question is why anyone would ever use one of these services from their Xbox on a regular basis. They both practically require the addition of a keyboard (though you can technically use in on-screen interface if you are some sort of masochist) which can take the form of a specialized controller or a USB keyboard. This seems like a thinly veiled attempt to sell more of those keyboard controllers. The interfaces are cutesy with your Avatar standing around looking sort of bored but I can't see why I need this on the Xbox. Frankly, hardcore gamers tend to be tech-heads. They surely have a desktop in a nearby room, a laptop on the seat next to them, or a smart phone they can use to access Facebook and Twitter. Even if they don't, why would they need that access? You've long been able to leave text and voice messages to your Xbox Live buddies and enter live chats with groups more recently. Unless you really can't wait to brag to the Facebook world that you headshotted xxIeAtBaCoNxx, these services on the Xbox go straight over "Me too" and into "Who cares?" The only real advancement here is that certain games will allow you to upload in game videos to Facebook. This is a great way to show your skills to your friend or perhaps to put together a training video but it remains to be seen if it will be adopted by any but the most hardcore.
Last.Fm is an Internet Radio provider that again requires a free subscription. While I won't go in to all the specifics, this is another service that takes your ratings of what you hear and creates a custom channel with your favorite music and music the site thinks you'll like. With devices like the Squeezebox Duet (which, ironically, now also has access to Facebook), networked receivers, and others that all can bring Internet Radio into your home theater for free, this addon for the Xbox seems to be a little more useful. If you have an older receiver (or many newer ones for that matter) or you don't want to buy a streaming device, you may get a lot of use out of Last.Fm. It does have ads (many Internet Radio stations do) but the access to many different channels and the ability to tailor a channel to your personal preferences is very cool. That is if you haven't already do so with one of the myriad of other devices on the market.
1080p is one of the features that many people have been complaining about for a long time. Xbox has long has 720p but people want the highest resolution possible. What has also been a bit irksome is that you had to wait for the entire video to download before you could start watching it. Microsoft has addressed both of these complaints with the new Zune Marketplace. Now, provided you have a high speed internet connection (Microsoft recommends 8-10MBps), you can stream and download at the same time. With the proper Internet connection, you are able to get not only 1080p but also 5.1 surround sound. The streaming is adaptive and allows you to fast forward without rebuffering. Instead, it drops the video quality of the stream down to compensate while it catches up, slowly raising you back to 1080p. The cost of rentals (you have 14 days after purchase or 24 hours after you first hit play) averages about 480 points for HD and 320 points for SD ($25 gets you 2000 points so that's $6 for HD, $4 for SD) or 1200 for an HD buy and 800 for an SD buy. This depends a lot on the movie/show and not all shows can be had in HD and some can only be rented. One thing that should be mentioned is that you don't have to download your movie just to your Xbox. If your computer is networked or you have a Zune, you can download the content to any of those as well. I find this to be probably one of the coolest additions as it doesn't limit you.
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