Soon Your Xbox 360 May Replace Your Cable TV Box [Microsoft]

Microsoft is supposedly ready to announce a new Xbox 360 feature that'll let you watch lots of TV on your Xbox 360, according to a report from AllThingsD.

It's not the cord cutting-friendly service that we had hoped for as Microsoft is working closely with cable providers. This means you may have access to an excellent library of current TV shows and movies, but you will need a cable subscription to enjoy it. [AllThingsD]

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The Proposed Cable a la Carte Plans Aren't at all for Your Benefit [Cable]

The talk earlier this week of cable companies proposing a la carte cable plans made it sound like they actually wanted to do something for their customers. Well as IT World explains, the cable companies still reek of greed.

According to Kevin Fogarty, the ulterior motive behind this a la carte push is to transform in demand (and costly) channels such as ESPN into HBO-esque premium channels. Most channels would still be packaged as a bundle.

Skyrocketing TV broadcast deal costs have come down the line to cable companies, however, forcing them to pay as much as $4 per subscriber to run ESPN, according to cable-industry research firm SNL Kagan.

Niche special-interest channels like the History of Knitting Channel, on the other hand, either get onto channel listings free in order to fill out the list and make it more impressive-looking, or actually have to pay to be included (presumably in handmade socks; there hasn't been a lot of money in knitting since the automatic loom was invented).

Sigh. #FIXCABLE

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Xbox Live "Metro" Brings More Bing, Kinect, and Cable TV Integration To the Holidays [Xbox Live]

I sat down with Microsoft the other day to talk about the upcoming Xbox Live refresh that includes fancy new Bing integration, Kinect controlling nearly everything, deeper Facebook integration, and watching live cable TV on your Xbox.

Microsoft talked about partnerships with regional cable providers that would integrate the console with their services. Live TV and video on demand are currently being discussed. Basically, your Xbox becomes a cable box. Some partnerships will include live TV access, others will just be Video on Demand. If you're lucky, your provider will allow you to access both on the Xbox. Like Netflix, you'll be able to chat with friends while watching TV. When asked about DVR capabilities, while they don't have plans for it now, they didn't discount the possibility. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Microsoft intends to announce cable-provider partnerships when the service goes live during the holidays and will continue to announce new partnerships thereafter.

And because telling everyone about your crop situation on Facebook wasn't enough, deeper Xbox Live integration with the social network gives gamers the ability to post all, or only some, of their achievements. Additionally, posting a message about a game via a new feature known as Beacons is intended to announce a game you intend to play to your Xbox and Facebook friends.

The Bing demo was impressive as it featured the ability to search not only the Xbox Live and Zune Marketplace, but also the content of their partners like Netflix, Hulu, and the video on demand libraries of cable partnered cable providers. Gamers can speak their queries via the Kinect or type them in with the control pad.

Users can control nearly every aspect of Xbox Live with Kinect except for the settings portion. So expect to yell and wave your arms in front of your TV while looking for add-ons for your games.

Finally, they showed me the new remote for the Xbox that's expected to hit store shelves in November and set you back $19.99. No, the remote does not have a keyboard and they have no immediate plans to release one with a keyboard which seems like a great opportunity for a third-party hardware developer.

The Xbox Live dashboard refresh, codenamed "Metro," is expected to hit this holiday season.

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Time Warner Is Giving Away Slingboxes for Free* [Cable]

Time Warner Cable, the bane of my existence, is offering a $300 rebate for Slingboxes that makes the whole thing free. Which is nice, except it's only available for their Wideband Internet ($100/month) customers. The deal should start in September. [NY Times]

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