Report: Microsoft In Early Talks About Xbox Live TV Channel

Microsoft is in preliminary talks with former News Corp. president Peter Chernin about a television channel for Xbox Live, which would host reruns and originals shows, according to a report in Bloomberg. The proposed service would reportedly be exclusive to Xbox Live subscribers, presumably those who have a paid Xbox Live Gold account as opposed to the free Silver plan. The report, which cited anonymous sources, did not specify exact pricing models. The proposal appears to be in very early stages and may never come to fruition. Bloomberg said that at an April 12 meeting in Redmond, WA, Chernin suggested raising Xbox Live's monthly fee by $1 to $2 to add TV programming aimed at Xbox Live's young male demographic. Chernin would co-own the service with Microsoft, the report said. Chernin's publicist would not confirm the meeting took place, only stating, "Peter is talking to lots of people about lots of ideas in the digital space." Chernin also reportedly brought up the Xbox Live TV idea with reps for late night talk show host Conan O'Brien prior to his recent signing with TV network TBS. Microsoft has been positioning the Xbox 360 as a significant supplement to traditional network TV. Xbox Live users can buy and download TV shows to save to their hard drives and stream TV and movies from Netflix. Microsoft has also been continuing work on IPTV for Xbox 360.