Xbox LIVE TV Service Put on Hold

For months now, every other thing out of Microsoft’s collective, window-shaped mouth has been about the forthcoming Xbox TV service, what with all of its fancy pants Kinect-integration. But it seems as though the company has become a bit gun shy about the costs of bringing television content to users through its Xbox 360 console.

According to a Reuters article, when Microsoft discovered that licensing costs for providing content through its console was too high, the company decided to put its plans for TV services on indefinite hold.

The article cites an anonymous “senior media executive who had been involved in the talks.”

“They built Microsoft TV, they demoed it for us, they asked for rate cards but then said ‘ooh ah, that’s expensive,’” the source is quoted as saying. “It doesn’t mean they won’t be back in another iteration. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Even without the proposed service, Microsoft is still continuing to bring content to Xbox users through their partnerships with different content providers. A recently signed deal with News Corp will bring samples of that media giant’s offerings to the console, including Fox Broadcast, Fox News, and IGN apps. In addition, Verizon FiOS subscribers have been able to access cable content via the Xbox for the last few weeks as well, even though that’s still mainly a duplication of services and not the kind of service that Xbox TV would’ve been.

So for now, Microsoft has put Xbox TV on mute. Or pause. Or some other TV metaphor. Personally, I think that if they’re not going forward with it now, I have doubts that I’ll go forward at all any time soon. It’s possible that as people ditch their cable subscriptions, content providers will look to lower their licensing fees, but I have a feeling that won’t happen for at least another few years. And by then, we’ll all be using Xbox 720s anyhow.

Via Reuters