[Satellite TODAY 05-25-10] Australian DTH operator Foxtel will provide its TV services through Microsoft’s Xbox Live network, the company announced May 20.
    Foxtel by Xbox Live will allow Xbox 360 owners in Australia to access Foxtel channels including Fox Sports, Discovery, Nickelodeon, Disney, MTV, and other leading channels via their Xbox 360 entertainment console. There will also be a range of Video-on-Demand (VoD) services, including television series and movies. The service, which will launch later this year, will enable Australians, for the first time, to access Foxtel without the need for a Foxtel set-top-box.
    “This is a very exciting new frontier. Foxtel by Xbox Live will provide our 1.6 million subscribing households, as well as new customers, a transformative way of receiving and enjoying Foxtel over the Internet. We will offer Foxtel by Xbox Live,” Kim Williams, Foxtel CEO said in a statement.
    In May 2009, Microsoft teamed up with U.K. pay-TV operator BSkyB to give Xbox owners in the United Kingdom and Ireland the opportunity to access Sky Player, Sky’s online TV service, through their broadband-enabled games consoles.
    Neil Thompson, head of Xbox U.K. and Ireland told Satellite News last year, “It is the first time that live TV has been brought onto a console platform and it is a real indication of the way digital media is going.”