BT and Xbox manufacturers Microsoft have just announced a deal that will allow BT Broadband customers who sign up to the BT Vision service to watch and access on-demand digital TV in another room through an Xbox 360 console.
This new venture will allow BT Vision customers with an Xbox 360 to effectively turn their games machine into an all purpose home entertainment station – combining digital TV with BT Vision through the V-Box, with the online social networking/shopping aspect of Xbox Live.
In addition to this, BT have announced that mobile phones giant Motorola have been given the go-ahead to manufacture the new range of HD-Ready V-Box receivers that will allow Xbox gamers to download new titles from the Xbox Live marketplace in HD.
Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision was confident that the partnership with Microsoft will go some way in helping the BT Vision brand name expand: “Our aim is to provide BT Vision on multiple platforms – giving customers greater convenience, control and flexibility over what they watch, when they watch and how they watch TV. It also means that we are able to potentially expand our BT Vision customer base by tapping into the popularity of Xbox 360.”
Motorola have been chosen to manufacture the second generation V-Box for both their already established working relationship with Microsoft and their “extensive experience in IPTV”. Mr Marks also added that the partnership “underpins our medium-term goal of securing two-three million customers for BT Vision.”
If we can take ‘medium-term’ to mean the period between 2009 (when the new V-Boxes become available) and 2012 (when the digital switchover will be complete) then this means that BT are aiming to beat or at least equal the goal of 2 million IPTV customers by 2012 set by fourth-place rivals Tiscali.
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pete beckett said on 07 Jan 2008 at 3:49 pm #
I seem to remember a few years back BT being keen on hooking up with Sky and Nintendo, and coming up with some combined satellite TV-cum-games machine.
Remember reading about it in Edge, will try to find a link…
Smarks said on 08 Jan 2008 at 9:50 am #
3 million custoemrs on BT Vision? That;ll be the day…
Lleinad said on 09 Jan 2008 at 9:57 am #
We’ve got BT Vision… it’s actually pretty decent.
This is good news if you’ve got some extra space on your Xbox, and your BT Vision box is full up. Plus, this means I now have a more compelling pro-Xbox case to put to ‘Er Indoors
Blake said on 09 Jan 2008 at 2:50 pm #
Any idea on when this is coming out??? I have xbox 360 and bt broadband, not bt vision yet tho…
fanta said on 09 Jan 2008 at 4:06 pm #
Interesting how Sony spent so much time and money integrating Bluray into the PS3 to support their new movie standard, only to find Microsoft providing a more convenient method of downloading and watching more content at a comparable quality down the line. This is a big boost for the Xbox, as it was (in my mind) one of the few areas lacking.
alan dalus said on 11 Jan 2008 at 10:36 am #
PS3 does too much. Sony should have realised that people want a games machine to - funnily enough - play games on first, watch Freeview/DVD/BluRay movies on second.
I’m getting an Xbox 360 in March, when Dynasty Warriors 6 comes out. Also looking forwards to finally playing Mass Effect and Halo 3