back to article Microsoft postpones plans for web telly service

Microsoft has postponed plans to launch an online subscription service for TV shows and movies because new content costs too much to license. According to folk familiar with the talks between Microsoft and content providers, the high cost of the material made the service unviable, Reuters reports. "They built Microsoft TV, …

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  1. Robert Grant

    Probably should've asked that first

    Develop first, ask question later? Brilliant.

    1. Spearchucker Jones
      FAIL

      Not quite sure of that.

      I think it was more an issue of maximusing revenue out of existing media and streaming tech from the Xbox, 'specially in light of the desktop launch for Kinect.

      Either way, that guy that said "...but then [Microsoft] said 'ooh ah, that's expensive'..." needs to be shot, if he meant it the way it sounds. It sounds trite.

      This media IS too expensive, and that's what's driving piracy, SOPA, The Pirate Bay and all the rest of that ungoldy copyright cluster-f*ck.

      If the media industry made ALL their content EASILY available at AFFORDABLE prices there would be no need for TPB, torrents and so on.

      The problem here is not MIcrosoft - it's Hollywood. People download pirate copies of films -- both old obscure titles and new blockbusters -- because either it's just not available anywhere, or it's simply too tedious to purchase, or expensive.

      1. Goat Jam

        "If the media industry made ALL their content EASILY available at AFFORDABLE prices"

        Aaaah, but that would mean they couldn't afford to pay vacuous Hollywood mannequins of variable levels of acting ability the billions of dollars that they require to maintain the lavish lifestyles they have built for themselves on the basis that they fill the gap in American culture that is normally occupied in other countries by equally vacuous members of "Royal Families".

        Personally I thought Pixar were on to the right idea by removing actors from the equation except they seem to have stumbled a bit there by inviting the very same actors to voices for their animated characters, hopefully not at the same exorbitant rates that said actors normally command for "live action" films.

        The sooner I can stand in the checkout line and not be confronted with a dozen or more magazines shouting about the latest trials and tribulations of Brangelina or the current weight status of Kirstie Alley the better.

    2. Figgus

      One would have thought they'd have gotten costs when they were working up the business viability of the project.

      It seems the culture at Microsoft doesn't do planning anymore?

  2. dotdavid
    Meh

    Expensive

    "but then said 'ooh ah, that's expensive',"

    A bit like how many of their customers behave when confronted with the price of a Windows upgrade.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Expensive

      Oh, very good. These forums need another trite comment. <Yawn>

      1. Figgus
        Trollface

        @AC

        Good on you for providing it, then. +1?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh dear

    "Microsoft has postponed plans to launch an online subscription service for TV shows and movies because new content costs too much to license."

    ...and there I was thinking you were going to say "because it crashed all the time and was rubbish"!

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Enlightening Scripts ..... Magical Tales of Tomorrows .... the Future

    "According to folk familiar with the talks between Microsoft and content providers, the high cost of the material made the service unviable, Reuters reports."

    Is not novel content not provided for free for Microsoft to capitalise? A Positively Reinforcing Mutually Beneficial Executive Protocol to Lead Betas in Any Virtual Reality.

    What does Microsoft know of NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT in Live Operational Virtual Environments? Clouds Hosting Advanced Operating System?

  5. nexsphil

    They wanted to licence content at the same time it's released in cinemas? And they thought this wouldn't be astronomically expensive? What, are they retarded?

    1. kain preacher

      Comcast cable here in the States does just that

  6. JDX Gold badge

    re: A shame really

    No no no! I don't want my TV controlled by gestures and voice. I just want the bloody XBox to rspond to the same remote control as everything else.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    App Store for TV

    I have been saying this for years but somebody needs to make an "App Store" for TV, i.e., make a platform where creators of TV shows/movies can submit their content and get paid based on number of views.

    This situation where Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Microsoft/etc. go out and fight tooth-and-nail in backroom negotiations to get old episodes of Magnum PI is poor for everybody involved.

    As soon as the platform exists and there are a few success stories of shows making much more money on this per-view basis, it will be the Next Big Thing and invalidate the need for cable/satellite TV and internet TV as we know it.

    1. Goat Jam

      TV App Store

      I expect if this happens it will come from Cupertino and I would not be surprised if it came inbuilt into the rumoured Apple TV which is supposedly coming in the next few months.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/28/apple_tv/

    2. Boothy

      The Android market place already has movies, I see no reason why this couldn't be expanded quite easily to things like TV series and documentaries etc.

      And also then opened up to direct submissions from creators themselves.

      The rumour is that the updated versions of Google TV, will essentially be an optimised version of Android for media playback, and will include full access to the market place, so Android apps, games, Movies and Music all direct to your TV.

      If they added TV series, then no more need for Sky TV etc.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Postponed for 17 years and counting

    To my knowledge (I was vaguely involved) Microsoft have been trying to do something like this since 1995. I will continue to not hold my breath.

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