Yesterday it was reported that we’ll be seeing the Xbox Live TV announcement today, and true to the word of All Things D’s anonymous sources, Microsoft did in fact make the announcement. Through a press release issued in the morning, Verizon and Microsoft officially announced a new FiOS TV-powered entertainment experience coming soon to the Xbox 360. Using a Verizon-developed app, FiOS TV and Internet customers who are also Xbox LIVE Gold members will be able to view popular live TV channels through their Xbox consoles without any extra hardware required.
Take note that having an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription isn’t going to eliminate the need for your regular cable subscription. If anything, this just means that you won’t need to have a dedicated set-top box in your living more room (or wherever your FiOS TV is normally set up). However, Verizon FiOS is only the beginning, and Microsoft will have more TV content in the coming months: Comcast, HBO, Bravo, and SyFy just to name a few. Xbox Live TV will be released sometime this holiday season.
In addition to the TV update, Xbox users will also be getting an update for a unified dashboard for Xbox Live. Basically what you saw earlier this week in leaked footage of the Xbox 360 dashboard video will be coming soon to your console as well. Stay tuned.
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