Pay TV and LoveFilm coming to Xbox Live?

Pay TV and LoveFilm coming to Xbox Live?
Xbox set to become a PVR

Microsoft is looking to turn Xbox Live in a veritable media hub, with the addition of pay TV channels and LoveFilm.

This is according to a report by Bloomberg, which suggests that Microsoft is in the midst of signing a number of a deals with media companies including Time Warner, Sony, NBC and, more pertinently for the UK, LoveFilm.

Although nobody has gone on record as saying that this is happening, it is thought that we should see some of the services in place as soon as next week.

Live TV

Microsoft has made no secret of its desire to offer up TV content through Xbox Live. It already has Sky Player on board and back in E3 in June it revealed to the world that 2011 would be the year it would bring live TV to the console – although no partners were mentioned.

Its rival, Sony, has slowly but surely bolstered its TV streaming selection and already has the iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and LoveFilm on board.

LoveFilm has said its focus for the future is increasing its streaming output, so it makes sense for the company to launch on the Xbox – just this week it announced it is now coming to the Apple iPad.

We may not see Xbox Live TV this week but it's definitely coming soon - so for this reason we are badging this rumour as Very Likely.

Rumour meter

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.