Xbox 360 Video Marketplace: A New Home Hub?<< Everything With a Song | Main | CBS Hearts YouTube (!) >> Joseph Laszlo | November 22, 2006, 12:17 PM The Xbox 360 took another step toward Total Living Room Domination with the launch of its video marketplace... 48 movies and 50 TV shows to start, including lots of Star Trek and South Park (they know their audience). Pricing is interesting, based on the Xbox Live Marketplace points system, which as a non-Xbox owner I find confusing. Thankfully Joystiq has a chart: New releases * 720p HD movies -- 480 MS Points ($6) "Classic" feature film * 720p HD movies -- 360 MS Points ($4.50) Television purchase * 720p HD television -- 240 MS Points ($3) Movies are available only as "rentals," although TV shows are for "purchase," which I presume means they live on your HD forever. Pricing actually seems fairly reasonable, given high quality video delivered to the TV, and the UI looks pretty good. The only downside here is the delayed gratification factor; an SD movie runs 1.4GB, HD runs 5.7GB. Not clear if you can start playing before the whole thing is downloaded, but even if you can, there's still going to be a lengthy delay between hitting "buy" and hitting "play," which means MSO VoD businesses are probably fairly safe for the time being. Still, I'm very keen on anything (like Akimbo or ITVN) that bridges the Internet/TV gap, moving media where people want to consume it most. Will be very interesting to see what the response to this is like from the user base, and how the content library expands over time. Jupiter clients should look at David Card's Evolving Business Models in Filmed Entertainment, a thorough overview of this and other potentially disruptive factors facing the industry in the next few years. |
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