ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Live Sports on Your Video Game Console?

It stands to reason that a large segment of the sports-watching population, especially the lucrative young male demographics, owns some sort of video gaming console. And so, the New York Times’ report that Disney and Microsoft have had discussions about bringing ESPN content to the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live service is kind of a big deal.

⇥⇥For a per-subscriber fee, ESPN could provide live streams of sporting events, similar to the ones available through ESPN 360, a service that is available from some high-speed Internet providers. Microsoft could also create some interactive games in association with ESPN, the people said, although a deal has not yet been struck.⇥⇥⇥⇥Already, video game consoles are putting a new emphasis on the video, rather than the game. The roughly 20 million monthly members of Xbox Live can surf Facebook, browse an online mall of movies and TV episodes and, if they pay, watch Netflix. “It’s 20 million connected living rooms,” said Marc Whitten, the general manager of Xbox Live.⇥⇥

There’s some math that isn’t fully explained in the piece, and worth explaining here. Though 20 million may subscribe to Xbox Live, a majority of those users probably have the free Silver membership, which limits access; the streaming Netflix service requires both a Netflix account and subscription to the Gold membership, which costs $50 a year. I’ll guess that ESPN would want to follow that Netflix model.But the basic point is this: If ESPN wants to ensure that consumers can get ESPN content through only video game console and an Internet connection, this is one heck of a potential end run. Younger consumers are both coveted and clever enough to work around having cable: These are the people who can find shows on Hulu or illegal download sites, the ones who use their laptops as TVs as is. ESPN and Microsoft partnering to create a system that would permit toggling from Madden to the live Monday Night Football game, without paying for a cable subscription, might be highly appealing to that group.

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