Microsoft partners with ESPN to bring WatchESPN to Xbox Live

Microsoft has been making many new additions to its Xbox Live service. The company has partnered with sports channel ESPN to bring the WatchESPN app to the Xbox 360.

With the launch, ESPN on Xbox will deliver live content from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Goal Line/Buzzer Beater through WatchESPN to Xbox LIVE Gold members who receive these networks through a video subscription from an affiliated provider.

The new ESPN on Xbox gives HD-quality live programming and events through WatchESPN. All the popular shows are viewable, like SportsCenter, PTI, First Take, NFL Live,Baseball Tonight, College GameDay, and Mike & Mike in the Morning, as well as live events from the NFL, MLB, NBA, football, tennis, golf, and motor sports, among others.

Now with ESPN

Here are some of the features of ESPN on Xbox:

• My Sports – by choosing favourite sports and teams, fans are able to find games and content most important to them.
• Mini Guide – gives fans a preview and quick access to all live events and highlights right at the bottom of the screen.
• Split Screen – watch two events at once.  Watch live events on both screens or a live event on one and highlights on the other.
• Kinect – allows fans to navigate through the entire experience all with the wave of a hand or through voice control.
• ESPN BottomLine – provides breaking news and score updates from around the world of sports.

In related news, Microsoft had recently announced that it is partnering with The Karaoke Channel to bring Karaoke to the Xbox 360 as a service. The app is said to offer more than 8,000 tracks, with genres ranging from pop, rock, country, and R&B. The Karaoke Channel boasts the app's major advantage over other music games being that you don't have to store the music on your Xbox 360, and instead, could simply stream whatever song you wish to sing along to.

Available on Xbox Live in time for the holidays, Karaoke for the Xbox 360 will have a selection of free sample songs that will change frequently. Full access to the entire library is available for blocks of two, six, or 24 hours by redeeming Microsoft Points. Songs are added to the library on a regular basis as they are produced and licensed, giving everyone a great reason to launch The Karaoke Channel on Xbox Live to discover new songs to sing.

Back in October, Microsoft had released its yearly major update for the Xbox 360 dashboard. Perhaps the biggest feature in the new dashboard update for the Xbox 360 other than Internet Explorer is the inclusion of Xbox Music. Microsoft had officially taken the wraps off its latest attempt at a music service a day before the update was released. Xbox Music shows that the company is focusing on the Xbox 360 as more than just a gaming machine; the company looks at the console as an entertainment machine. This can be seen through the inclusion of many apps over the years, such as Netflix, Facebook and ESPN, and more recently, WatchESPN and Karaoke.