Despite recently killing off the Zune brand, Microsoft Australia has launched Zune TV in Australia. On offer is popular TV shows for viewing via you’re Xbox 360. Continuing the march towards making the Xbox the entertainment / set top box replacement for you living room, MS is giving you less reasons to watch that inconvenient live freeview.
On-demand is certainly all the rage right now, but there is one thing standing in your way.. price. There’s a lot of hit shows on offer like Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, How I met you mother and many more. Available in both HD and SD, the past seasons of HIMYM will cost 250 (A$4.12) / 190 (A$3.14) (Microsoft Points. Alternatively you can buy an entire season for 3340 points ($55.11).
At those prices, you’re better off waiting for the DVD to arrive. No word on the rollout schedule of episodes, but given the IP-based delivery, they could beat traditional free-to-air delivery windows. Knowing the TV networks in the US where most of these shows are created, that seems unlikely but could certainly go someway to justifying a premium.
Given other entertainment services like music have recently moved to subscription models, purchasing TV shows seems like an archaic prospect. Especially when you consider most people watch TV shows one, movies a little more and music receives repeat listens.
Zune TV is available now via your Xbox 360, expect a name change to TV Shows when the next Dashboard update and Windows rolls around.
