Microsoft’s XBOX 360 console has evolved quite a bit over the past few years. Despite its high failure rate and consistent hardware upgrades, the console has been more than just gaming. The XBOX 360 currently offers the following media capabilities:
- Netflix streaming.
- Facebook dashboard.
- Twitter updates.
- Media server and integration with products such as HP MediaSmart Server.
- Media streaming with PC and Mac.
- Connectivity with Amazon Video on Demand.
All of these are great features and make the XBOX 360 an excellent media consumption device.
Yesterday at the E3 event in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced that the device would now be able to stream live HD content via ESPN. Similar to Netflix, in order to access these streams, a user has to be a XBOX Live Gold member. An annual subscription ranges anywhere from $29 to $50 in the United States.
The impact and potential of this announcement is tremendous. Today, it is possible to get television on-demand. In other words, you could stream TV shows free from Hulu.com, a distributor’s portal or purchase them via iTunes or Amazon on Demand. However, with this announcement, even the most prized live-broadcast content — sports — is available at no additional cost.
It’ll be interesting to see the adoption rate of live content on a gaming console. If successful, Microsoft may have just managed to remove the largest barrier for media consumers.
