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Foxtel channels coming to Xbox Live

Foxtel has partnered with Microsoft to bring a selection of channels to Xbox Live in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Foxtel channels will be coming to Xbox Live later this year.

Foxtel has partnered with Microsoft to bring a selection of channels to the gaming platform in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Packages and pricing have not yet been revealed, but Foxtel CEO Kim Williams indicated they would be at an attractive price given there is no set-up costs involved.

There will be 30 channels including FOX Sports, Discovery, Nickelodeon, Disney, MTV, with on demand and catch-up channels, including television series and movies.

Xbox 360 customers will need an Xbox Gold subscription and a Foxtel by Xbox Live subscription.

Foxtel Chief Executive and Managing Director, Kim Williams AM said, “This is a very exciting new frontier. Foxtel by Xbox Live will provide our 1.6 million subscribing households, as well as new customers, a transformative way of receiving and enjoying Foxtel over the internet. We will offer Foxtel by Xbox Live with various packages and prices and under flexible agreements. It is an exciting new way of exploring Foxtel’s universe of content for a new generation of customers.”

David McLean, Head of Entertainment and Devices, Microsoft Australia said, “The strategic partnership with Foxtel builds on our great range of entertainment offerings. We are proud of the new interactive entertainment experiences we continue to deliver to our customers and have no doubt that 2010 will be an exciting year for Xbox.”

Kim Williams added, “This significant partnership is true to our heritage of investing and innovating for customers who embrace new technology and content developments. With at least 30 live channels and a wide suite of Video on Demand services, delivered over the internet via Xbox Live, no other television service comes close to this revolutionary new IP offering, so that once again Foxtel is at the fore-front – a natural home for us.”

Microsoft currently has two other television broacasters in similar deals with BSkyB in the UK and Microsoft and CANAL+ in France.

The service will be available in Foxtel transmission areas. Microsoft will be looking at the possibility of a similar deal with Austar for regional viewers further down the track.

NRL and AFL will not be included under the current sports contracts.

Williams indicated two ISPs were currently expected to provide unmetered access but declined to name them.

16 Responses

  1. Hey dont forget the Wii the Wii has been left out of this its not fair for people who own a Wii.
    Because ps3 gets ABCiveiw and plus 7 and the 360 gets foxtel but what does the Wii get nothing. You all know that the Wii isnt as bad as people say it is So please Foxtel Please bring foxtel to the Wii. Oh i forgot to tell you something The Wii has something both the ps3 and 360 have and thats YouTube beat that.
    You may be able to get on youtube but you cant watch the videos because 0f the flash player and you cant update because it doesnt support ps3 or xbox. Fortunantly Nintendo update the flash player. So every time you update the Wii it updates the flash player.i made my point please comment

  2. Great more ways to delivery content different ways.
    There is no standard.
    TV companies are patterning with different networks.
    Consoles are partnering with different networks.
    Its just a different way to distribute the same media and charge multiple times.

  3. @ Garion – I can see your point but in numbers of online users Xbox live would far outweigh the other two providers, hell I’ll wager most Wii owners probably don’t know they can go online!

  4. If your ISP doesn’t offer unmetered downloads for the foxtel 360 service, then this thing will cost you an absolute arm and a leg.

    Apart from that downside, I think this is a pretty good move for foxtel, it makes foxtel accessble to a lot more people, if only they had it on wii aswell.

    As for the austar- regional viewers, couldn’t they jjust get the foxtel360 service instead of waiting for an austar deal? Afterall, the service is offered over the Internet, therefor it should be accessable australia-wide.

  5. I figured Nine, with their MSN affiliation, would be the first to jump on board the XBOX live train. With ABC iView available on PS3, it makes sense.

  6. This is potentially quite interesting, but I guess since they’ve made a big deal about it, it’ll be an X-Box exclusive? No chance of it coming to the PS3?

  7. We still need more Kids and Music Channels on Foxtel, I’ve written to the Walt Disney Co. Australia asking them to Update their Website and Launch a New Channel. I need the Website to MTV Networks and asking them to Launch a New Nick-Branded Channel.

  8. Partnerships like this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

    If I want foxtel on my Wii, PlayStation or PSP I should be able to.

    It shouldn’t come down to agreements between two companies 🙁

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