PSound
09-25-09, 03:15 PM
Since Xbox 360 introduced its Live Video Marketplace online service two years ago, the company has been the leader in delivering digital movies and TV shows to the living room TV. As an onslaught of new video competitors enter the living room this fall, Xbox is reinventing its video service with a new graphic main page that lets users easily pick out movies and TV shows to watch instantly from Netflix or Zune video, which it will roll out later this fall as a replacement for Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and other new features such as social watching. Xbox Live general manager Christina DeRosa sat down with Video Business’ Jennifer Netherby to talk about Xbox’s video plans.
VB: Where do you see the Xbox 360 fitting in as more connected devices come to the home?
DeRosa: Xbox 360 is a social entertainment platform, and undisputedly by fall, with Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune video, we will have established ourselves as such. Our aspiration is to just continue to build out the entertainment portion of the service to complement gaming. We want to be the de facto box in the living room that delivers all your entertainment choices, and I think we are best positioned to do that in many ways. We are inherently a software company. Much of the magic you see on the screen is software, and that is one of Microsoft’s core competencies. We can continually enhance or even reinvent the experience that you have because we re-release our software—it isn’t console dependent. It is now a matter of bringing it to more people with more partners and with more internal-built services, and ultimately porting the Live service beyond the console. That is one of our aspirations as well, and you’ll see that with Zune, which will be a content service that is across multiple screens.
VB: In terms of Netflix, do you think that has brought in new video users on the Xbox?
DeRosa: Bringing Netflix to Live did two important things. First, I think existing members will spend more time on our service because we have Netflix. Second, we’ve also attracted some new people because of Netflix that have gone out and said, ‘Wow, this is a really great entertainment service and I want to have access to it.’ We really focus a lot of the subscription service on retaining our existing members, keeping them happy and adding more features and value. Netflix has helped us in that regard. The community is more engaged and will stay longer.
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6698790.html
VB: Where do you see the Xbox 360 fitting in as more connected devices come to the home?
DeRosa: Xbox 360 is a social entertainment platform, and undisputedly by fall, with Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune video, we will have established ourselves as such. Our aspiration is to just continue to build out the entertainment portion of the service to complement gaming. We want to be the de facto box in the living room that delivers all your entertainment choices, and I think we are best positioned to do that in many ways. We are inherently a software company. Much of the magic you see on the screen is software, and that is one of Microsoft’s core competencies. We can continually enhance or even reinvent the experience that you have because we re-release our software—it isn’t console dependent. It is now a matter of bringing it to more people with more partners and with more internal-built services, and ultimately porting the Live service beyond the console. That is one of our aspirations as well, and you’ll see that with Zune, which will be a content service that is across multiple screens.
VB: In terms of Netflix, do you think that has brought in new video users on the Xbox?
DeRosa: Bringing Netflix to Live did two important things. First, I think existing members will spend more time on our service because we have Netflix. Second, we’ve also attracted some new people because of Netflix that have gone out and said, ‘Wow, this is a really great entertainment service and I want to have access to it.’ We really focus a lot of the subscription service on retaining our existing members, keeping them happy and adding more features and value. Netflix has helped us in that regard. The community is more engaged and will stay longer.
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6698790.html