(Image source:gamerevolution.com)


BY GARY COTTON

With the Xbox dashboard update come and gone, gamers could have something else to look forward to from Microsoft. Bloomberg reports original programming is in the works. They write...

“Microsoft Corp. is seeking to hire a television executive to develop original shows as part of a drive to expand its Xbox Live game and video service...[According to sources] Two former NBC executives, Marc Graboff and Jeff Gaspin, have been approached...”

So let the headhunt begin. According to Bloomberg a partner at Stratis LLC, has been hired to lead the search. A writer for The Verge says the original programming should fare well -- Microsoft has done this kind of thing before.

“It wouldn't be an unprecedented move. Microsoft tapped Hollywood producer Peter Safran to produce a series of short film pilots for Xbox Live...[they were] allegedly discussing an entire TV channel for Xbox [and] even tried to attract Conan O'Brien to the platform around the same period.”

But a writer for SF Gate disagrees. Yes, Microsoft has done this sort of thing before -- but it didn’t work.

“In the 1990s it launched a bunch of original Web content for MSN (like the magazine Slate), and in 2006 it unveiled MSN Originals, a project to get exclusive video content for MSN. None of them took off...Plus, Microsoft is already doing quite well getting content from partners.”

But, that may all be a moot point. Slash Gear says Microsoft is only set on the idea if it finds the right exec for the job.

“Microsoft is only interested in making a hire if it can find the right person,’ one source says, ‘and it’s possible no one will be chosen for the job”

Whether Microsoft goes forward with the idea or not, a writer for PC World says it’s just another sign streaming content is making traditional cable TV obsolete. He warns:

“TV networks and cable TV providers -- there is this little thing called the Internet that is coming to drive you to extinction…at least as we now know you. … Resistance is futile. Cable TV will be assimilated.”




 

 

Tech News: Xbox TV Considers Original Content

Xbox TV Considers Original Content

December 12, 2011
(1:45)
Sources report that Microsoft is looking for someone to oversee original content production for Xbox TV, but would the programs succeed?
   
TRANSCRIPT

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