Microsoft is looking to line up its Xbox gaming console as more than just the toy you spend 12 hours a week attached to playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It wants to make it the system of choice for home entertainment and it's found some advertising support for its push.
The computing giant already has added Facebook, Twitter, Zune and Last.fm to its roster of offerings for its 17 million registered users on a trial basis. Now, it's looking to hook up with the BBC, MySpace, and Channel 4 to stream more content. It’s long-standing deal as a Netflix partner suffered a bit of a setback this month when the video-by-mail leader agreed to a deal to stream movies from Netflix to the Sony PS3 in the U.S.
Microsoft isn’t waiting for the other shoe to fall. It's gone on the offensive, not only lining up content partners, but also commercial partners. Sony Pictures, Vodafone, and Waitrose all are looking to make a splash via the Xbox, reports new media age, including buying a catalog of pre-roll ad campaigns.
“We want to put our content where our customers are,” a Channel 4 exec told new media age. “You can make some reasonable assumptions if you look at the demographics of Xbox users and 4oD users.”
For more:
-see this new media age article
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