Hollywood Heavyweights Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM Offer High-Definition Entertainment Content on Xbox LIVE

Deals bring hit television content from ABC, ABC News, ABC Family, Disney Channel and Toon Disney along with film classics and recent blockbusters from MGM and United Artists.

LAS VEGAS — Jan. 6, 2008 — Xbox LIVE Marketplace, the leading high-definition video-on-demand service, is expanding once again, adding content from two major entertainment partners. Microsoft Corp. today announced at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that Disney-ABC Television Group and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) will be joining the more than 35 networks and studios offering U.S. Xbox LIVE members premium entertainment content via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store.

"Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM are two of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, and this announcement helps continue to evolve and diversify the content offering on Xbox LIVE," said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "The ability to offer such great content in high definition further expands Microsoft's commitment to connected entertainment with Xbox 360."

Later this month, all U.S. Xbox LIVE members will begin to have access to select TV shows and movies from the ABC Television Network, ABC Family, ABC News, Disney Channel and Toon Disney as part of an agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group. More than 500 hours of content, in both standard definition and high definition when available, will be offered including hit ABC Television shows "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty" and "Desperate Housewives." Past and current ABC shows will be available on demand, with new episodes arriving on the service the day after they air on television. A variety of award-winning ABC News broadcasts and specials from its unparalleled archive dating back to 1963 and containing priceless interviews, stories and historical moments will be available for download as well.

Viewers will also be able to enjoy shows from ABC Family, such as "Kyle XY" and "Greek, " as well as popular Disney Channel series including "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" and select Disney Channel Original Movies such as "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2."

"As a company dedicated to providing consumers with a variety of high-quality entertainment and news content that they can view at their convenience, regardless of time, place or platform, we are very excited to bring our programming to Xbox LIVE members," said Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group. "This new agreement will not only provide incremental viewing opportunities, but also provides a wealth of promotional opportunities to further awareness of our shows and brands."

MGM will be bringing its legendary movie library to the service, with classic films ranging from the "Rocky" series to "Dances with Wolves." Action-thrillers such as "Terminator," "Silence of the Lambs" and "The Amityville Horror," comedies and broad-appeal titles such as "Legally Blonde," "Barbershop" and "Agent Cody Banks," and award-winning films such as "Platoon," "Rain Man" and "The Usual Suspects" highlight the diverse launch lineup. United Artists, an MGM sister company, will be making films available as well. Many titles offered by MGM will be available in high definition.

"The Video Store on Xbox LIVE Marketplace has proven to be very successful, and we are excited that MGM will be a partner in 2008," said Jim Packer, co-president of Worldwide Television at MGM. "At MGM we are always looking for new ways to reach our broad audience, and partnering with Microsoft allows us to make our legendary library available to the millions of Xbox LIVE members here in the U.S."

The Video Store in Xbox LIVE Marketplace is the leading provider of high-definition video on demand, offering movies for video on demand and TV shows and music videos for electronic sell-through. With more than 3,500 hours of premium entertainment content from more than 35 studios and networks, Xbox LIVE Marketplace helps make Xbox 360 the center of connected entertainment in the living room. More information about content being offered on Xbox LIVE Marketplace is available at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav.

"The reason why we do that, the core reason, is around credit card transaction fees," said Greenberg. "If we do this in bulk, we don't have to burden the consumer with the transaction fees, or ourselves or publishers. It's about keeping infrastructure costs down and I know sometimes it's frustrating because you end up with odd points, but we don't have any plans to change that."

Forgive the quick brush-off, but the fact is that there are a lot of other systems around—iTunes, Nintendo's Virtual Console—where you can buy credit or points with a credit card or on a gift card from Target or wherever, yet they still manage to use a setup that's easily translated to and from real money, making bulk purchases less annoying. If credit card transaction costs really are the issue, to be honest, I'd almost be willing to pay the premium for a setup that makes sense. What do you guys think? [1UP via Kotaku]

The first artist to make use of Ignition is the UK's Maximo Park (who?) whose album Our Earthly Pleasures and single "Our Velocity" will be available as free downloads on the Zune Marketplace.

While essentially (for now) a hyped-up cross-promotional ad system, the fact that it will offer more (and free) content to users—like music and videos through the Zune and Live Marketplace—is nothing to sneeze at.

More broadly...

MIcrosoft finally leveraging its cross-platform capabilities generally bodes well for us. More content available across more platforms more seamlessly is rarely a bad thing, and hopefully Microsoft will continue pushing in this direction beyond advertising.

What kind of multi-platform content do you guys want to see? – Matt Buchanan

Microsoft Ignition to Promote Music Artists [Digital Trends via Ars Technica]
Press Release [Microsoft]