Xbox TV Announcement Coming Soon…

Bloomberg reports today that Microsoft is nearing a detailed announcement about their Xbox TV service, and that we should expect something “as soon as next week.”

Microsoft is reportedly in talks with nearly two dozen content providers, ranging from Comcast to Verizon FiOs, which seems to point to the fact that this service will make cable content available on the Xbox itself…meaning, it seems, that you won’t have to switch your Xbox off if you want to watch television.

Eh.

The rest of the article is basically stuff we already know. The main draw here is that you’ll be able to navigate television content via Bing and the Kinect’s voice controls, which would save you from the “frustrations of using guides and menus and controllers,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO.

Sounds like this year’s Juice Loosener.

The service won’t, it seems, be available to anyone who doesn’t already have a cable service subscription. That’s all well and good, and I guess for those who have cable and are really sick of pushing buttons on their remotes, this is a godsend. But other than that, making already-available content available again isn’t that great an innovation—it’s repetition, at least to my eyes.

Of course, the real details have yet to be revealed, so when we know more about it, I’ll either a) continue griping about how it sucks (which is pretty much what you do on the internet) or b) talk about how surprising and awesome it is. Haven’t figured out a third option  yet.

Via Bloomberg