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Apple Inc. is in discussions with television networks to lower the price of downloaded TV shows when the company begins selling its new iPad tablet computer, people familiar with the talks said.

One of these people said Apple has already been testing a price of 99 cents—half the price of standard-definition TV episodes—for certain shows on its iTunes service and wants to finalize a deal to offer that price more broadly along with the iPad, which is expected to go on sale in late March.

A search on iTunes showed, for example, that episodes of MTV Networks’ comedy show “Wonder Showzen,” Viacom’s “Celebrity Paranormal Project” and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.’s “Children’s Hospital” drama series are currently on sale for 99 cents.

Some episodes of selected television shows have also been available for free.

The people familiar with the talks said the new pricing has not been finalized yet. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Apple could begin offering 99-cent pricing for TV shows along with the iPad.

The discussions are part of Apple’s broader strategy to overhaul its iTunes service. The Cupertino, Calif., company acquired music-streaming service La La Media Inc. late last year as part of a plan to offer consumers more ways to access and manage their music purchases.

On the video side, it has been in serious discussions with television networks since last fall to come up with more compelling pricing packages for consumers.

Apple currently offers TV shows for $1.99 for standard-definition episodes and $2.99 for high-definition episodes. For an entire season, consumers might pay $49.99 in high-definition for a popular television series. Several executives at media companies have acknowledged in recent months that Apple’s prices for video on iTunes are extremely high, but it’s also one of the reasons why media companies and cable operators have not felt threatened by the offerings.

As The Wall Street Journal previously reported, Apple’s initial discussions with the networks centered on a monthly subscription plan for a selection of TV shows.

People familiar said those talks appear to have stalled, though one of those people said that Apple hasn’t given up on that idea as an additional offering.

Beefing up its content offerings is crucial for the success of the iPad, which Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has touted as the pre-eminent media and entertainment device.

One person familiar with the talks said that Apple met with at least one network as recently as last week to discuss the pricing. This person said the company was trying to “ignite the video part of iTunes,” which has been a small contributor to the service’s revenues so far.

In its quarter ended Dec. 26, Apple reported $1.16 billion in iTunes Store sales, iPod services and accessories.

LAS VEGAS – January 06, 2010 – FLO TV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), and mophie today announced they are teaming to create a series of products that will bring live mobile TV to the iPhone and iPod touch platforms.

The products, which are expected to begin shipping in the first half of this year, will bring the award-winning FLO TV mobile TV service to the cutting-edge mophie juice pack, letting consumers view their favorite live entertainment, sports and news from the world’s top entertainment brands on their iPhone and iPod touch.

“We are uniting our vision of advancing mobile TV across a range of devices and platforms with mophie’s unrivaled expertise in designing intelligent cases for Apple users,” said Bill Stone, president of FLO TV. “Together, our solution will be a true live mobile TV product available to iPhone and iPod touch users.”

“mophie’s juice pack line has delivered superior rechargeable external battery life to Apple users,” said Shawn Dougherty, vice president of mophie, designer of the world’s thinnest Apple-certified external battery/protective case and other Apple-certified accessories. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to elevate our intelligent case design through this creative product collaboration and deliver the ultimate mobile television experience for iPhone users.”

The agreement between mophie and FLO TV reflects the growing demand for mobile television and FLO TV’s commitment to bring its award-winning service to any small screen. The new products integrate mophie’s intelligent case design with a built-in FLO TV receiver that allows iPhone and iPod touch users the ability to watch live television at the flip of a switch. Consumers can also utilize the device as back-up battery power in between charges.

Service not available everywhere. Programming subject to change / blackout restrictions. Service subscription required. “Live mobile television” means the FLO TV service transmits channels in real time; no downloading, sideloading or buffering.

About mophie
mophie is an award winning accessory company consistently praised for its creative designs and innovative solutions. mophie was proud to be the first ever “Works With iPhone” certified battery by Apple Inc. Its products can be found in Apple Stores and major retailers worldwide and onwww.mophie.com. Follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mophielovesyou.

About FLO TV
The FLO TV service combines the best content, an intuitive user interface and a superior multicast network to deliver a true quality TV viewing experience for consumers. FLO TV offers full–length simulcast and time–shifted programming from the world’s best entertainment brands, including ABC, ABC Entertainment, ABC Family, ABC News, ABC Sports, Adult Swim Mobile, CBS, CBS College Sports, CBS News, CNBC, COMEDY CENTRAL, Disney Channel, Disney Channel Original Movies, ESPN, ESPNEWS, ESPN 2, FOX, FOX News Channel, FOX Sports, FUEL TV, MSNBC, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News, NBC Sports, nickelodeon, Playhouse Disney and SOAPNet. Based in San Diego, Calif., FLO TV Incorporated is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. Further information is available at www.flotv.com

LAS VEGAS, Jan 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — As the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today furthered the company’s Connected TV leadership by globally expanding the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine. New partnerships with Hisense, ViewSonic, MIPS Technologies, and Sigma Designs will dramatically increase the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, delivering compelling TV Widget experiences to more televisions and other consumer electronic devices which will begin shipping as soon as Q1 2010. Yahoo! TV Widgets now work on all major consumer electronic device chip architectures worldwide.

Reinforcing the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! also broadly released its Widget Development Kit (WDK) today, enabling developers to create TV Widgets and effectively reach millions of consumers. ”Consumers are in love with their televisions, watching more TV, and demanding Internet connectivity to further enhance their viewing experience,” said Arlo Rose, senior director of Yahoo! Connected TV. “Yahoo! is leading the connected TV market by bringing a rich variety of Internet content and services to the living room — incorporating video on demand, social networks, games, online shopping, and more — making it easy for consumers to personalize their TV viewing experience.”

New Partnerships To Expand Distribution for the Yahoo! Widget Engine

Building on the company’s existing distribution partnerships with Sony®, LG Electronics®, VIZIO® and Samsung® across North America and Europe, Yahoo! is expanding the availability of the TV Widget experience globally by embedding the Yahoo! Widget Engine in an even greater number of television models and a variety of new consumer electronics devices. New partnerships and noteworthy developments include:

● VIZIO’s XVT Series Connected HDTVs with VIZIO Internet Apps incorporate the Yahoo! Widget Engine and will be available at retailers throughout the U.S. in Q1. Taking unique advantage of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, VIZIO’s Connected HDTVs provide consumers with unprecedented choice, convenience, and control of an ever-increasing array of Internet content and services, as well as intuitive and simple access to the TVs’ settings through the Widget dock.

● Hisense International Co, Ltd., a world leading provider of flat panel TVs, household appliances, and mobile communications, announced a partnership with global Internet brand Yahoo!® Inc. to integrate the Yahoo! Widget Engine into Hisense Internet-Connected TVs that will ship across the U.S. and Europe.

● ViewSonic will provide customers with an interactive, connected TV experience via the ViewSonic VMP80 media player. Powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, the ViewSonic VMP80 media player will enable current HDTV owners to view movies, TV shows, Web videos, and photos; and to go shopping, play games, and more with TV Widgets. The VMP80 media player will ship in Q1 2010 for an estimated MSRP of US$159.

● MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications, and business applications, today announced plans to develop an optimized Yahoo! Widget Engine for MIPS-Based™ digital home devices. MIPS will develop an optimized reference platform running the Yahoo! Widget Engine for digital TV and set-top box applications. Leveraging this reference implementation, MIPS® licensees will be able to quickly develop devices incorporating Yahoo! TV Widgets.

● Sigma Designs announced plans to support the Yahoo! Widget Engine on its media processors, which will enable manufacturers to easily support Yahoo! Connected TV in a wide array of consumer electronic devices, including Blu-ray players, network players, AV receivers, and cable/IPTV set-top boxes.

WDK Now Widely Available for Developers and Publishers; Offering Instant Scalability

With thousands of developers in the process of creating TV Widgets, and to further the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! is making its Widget Developer Kit (WDK) broadly available for developers and publishers who want to extend their brand, services, and content to a mass market. Beginning today, anyone can download the WDK and quickly create, deploy and monetize exciting and engaging TV Widget experiences. Leveraging a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs), developers can write widgets using simple JavaScript and XML, producing rich Internet applications to deliver dynamic content to millions of television sets and other consumer electronic devices globally.

For more information on the WDK and to begin developing TV Widgets, visit: http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer

Slate of New TV Widget Providers Bring Thousands of Content Sources to Consumers

The Yahoo! Widget Gallery continues to expand, enabling consumers to access their favorite TV shows on Amazon® Video on Demand, play music on Pandora®, check sports scores on USA Today®, shop on eBay®, play games, or catch up with friends on Twitter™ and Facebook®, all while watching TV. Joining leading consumer brands like CBS®, Showtime® and Blockbuster®, a sample of recently introduced Widgets will provide consumers access to a personalized selection of music, video, news and information.

● CNBC: The CNBC widget allows viewers to interact with CNBC’s real-time stock quotes direct from the NYSE and NASDAQ, real-time watchlists to track favorite stocks, and other key analytics.

● NBC: View NBC’s show schedule, view full screen photo galleries and catch up on your favorite shows with up-to-date quick text recaps, cast bios, and more.

● Napster: Subscribers can browse, search, preview, and listen to Napster’s entire catalog of music on-demand, as well as enjoy custom radio stations, playlists, and Billboard charts.

● RadioTime: Create your personal selection of music from up to 100,000 radio stations.

● Sky News TV: Delivers breaking news by text and images to users’ TV sets. It includes seven categories of news: top stories, U.K. news, sports, business, world news, showbiz news, and politics.

● Dailymotion: Access one of largest Web video sites in the world through your TV.

● The Weather Channel: Enables consumers to stay up to date with the current conditions, the five-day forecast, and access regional radar, all accessible in a simple interface with the ability to look up and save multiple locations.

● Betfair: The world’s biggest betting community provides sports enthusiasts with an online entertainment experience to enhance their sports television watching in the U.K.

● My-Cast Weather: Provides animated Nexrad radar, hourly to seven-day forecasts, StormWatch, cloud information and more across the United States. Yahoo! has also worked with leading video, data and photo aggregators to provide consumers access to their vast libraries of thousands of content sources.

● FrameChannel: Provides consumers with over 1,000 content channels from FrameChannel’s collection of leading photosharing, social networking and content partners, including BBC News, People.com, EW Picks, Deutsche Welle, Crave, Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and much more. Browse and configure hundreds of channels to create your personalized TV Widget.

● Brightcove: The Leading online video platform for publishing and distributing video on the Web now makes it easy for media companies and marketers to create immersive, branded video experiences for Internet-connected televisions. Some of the TV Widgets that consumers can expect shortly include: Slate V, This Old House, AllYou.com, My Home Ideas, My Recipes, Southern Living, Real Simple, Coastal Living, Sunset, Cooking Light, Wine Spectator, TheStreet.com, The Hollywood Reporter and Cars.com.

● Zinc: Enables users to enjoy high-quality Internet video, providing a simple and consistent way to browse more than 100,000 professionally produced videos from hundreds of different websites, including Amazon, Netflix, those of major networks, and more.

● 1Cast: This personalized video service delivers up-to-the-minute news video from leading programmers and broadcasters across the Web.

Action Adventure Movie Marathon From EPIX Kicks Off Nov. 26 on FiOS TV VOD, Keeping Viewers Awake and Entertained After a Full Meal

NEW YORK, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ — In just a few days, Americans will gather with family and friends for Thanksgiving, a holiday that is traditionally celebrated by eating turkey and watching football games on TV, while dozing off on the sofa or armchair. This year, however, Verizon is offering a new way to help people stay awake — and entertained — after a full meal: an EPIX “Feast of Fury” action adventure movie marathon.

Starting Thanksgiving morning, Verizon FiOS TV subscribers can watch back-to-back action adventure classics in “The Indy 500: 500 Minutes of Indiana Jones,” which includes “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

The “Feast of Fury” continues throughout the weekend with films like “Iron Man,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Flash Gordon,” “Casino Royale,” “Golden Eye,” “Red Dawn” and the “The Untouchables.” In total, “Feast of Fury” features 21 movie classics and concludes Sunday, Nov. 29, with the world television premiere of “Cloverfield.”

“Thanksgiving is all about relaxing with family and friends, and this year the FiOS ‘Feast of Fury’ movie marathon from EPIX is on FiOS TV customers’ R&R agendas,” said Shawn Strickland, vice president of consumer strategy for Verizon. “There’s really only one thing that can make movie classics like ‘Red Dawn’ and ‘The Untouchables’ better and that’s FiOS TV’s amazing picture-and-sound quality. And let’s not forget that FiOS TV subscribers are the first and only consumers today who can enjoy the incredible quality and variety that EPIX offers.”

Available in standard definition on FiOS TV channel 395, high-definition channel 895 and on Video on Demand (VOD), “Feast of Fury” and many other films from EPIX are also available online at www.epixhd.com. (To access the content online, EPIX subscribers must have both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.)

FiOS TV customers can order EPIX, which is available for $9.99 per month, by tuning to channel 395 or 895 and clicking the remote to subscribe, using Verizon’s unique on-screen ordering. EPIX also can be ordered either online by visiting www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral or by calling Verizon at 888-553-1555.

EPIX is part of Verizon FiOS TV’s extensive VOD collection of more than 18,000 monthly titles in every market, offering everything from popular movies and concerts to exercise and kids programming. FiOS TV customers can access on-demand content simply by pressing the “VOD” or “On Demand” button on their FiOS remote control, by using the menu on FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide, or by selecting VOD channel 900.

FiOS TV also offers more than 500 all-digital channels, including more than 126 HD channels, and provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social TV, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management; multi-room DVR, and more.

Verizon is the only company in the U.S. to bring 100 percent fiber optics straight to the home, delivering America’s top-rated broadband with download connections speeds of up to 50 megabits per second, more pure HD TV channels, amazing picture-and-sound quality, and interactive capabilities that cable can’t match.

For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter and http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving more than 89 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 230,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON’S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon’s News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

SOURCE Verizon

Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. The company is launching a trial run here in anticipation of a much broader rollout by March, providing free equipment and service for about three months to those who participate. (You can sign up at Sezmi’s website.) Even after the free trial ends, the price will be far below competing pay TV services: just under $5 a month for local broadcasts, Internet channels and access to pay-per-view services, and an additional $20 a month for more than 100 cable TV networks. Sezmi has some issues — some popular cable networks aren’t on board, at least not yet, and its selection of Web programming is far too limited — but it also offers some innovations that push TV service in the direction viewers want it to go.

saw a brief demonstration of Sezmi last week and was impressed by the picture quality and the user interface. The brains of the service reside in the set-top box, which makes aggressive use of its 1-terabyte hard drive to record shows automatically that its users like or might like. The service also expects to have well over 10,000 movies and TV shows available on demand — some of them on a pay-per-view basis — when it formally launches. The result is that the “My Shows” section of Sezmi’s on-screen guide should have plenty of personalized on-demand programs to offer in addition to whatever happens to be airing live. Among the other nice features: the box integrates programs from the Web into its recommendations, and it can create separate profiles for each user in a household so that Dad’s affection for news programs doesn’t pollute Junior’s lineup of sci-fi fantasies. The company also plans to give networks and advertisers room in the program guide to create expanded lists of content that can be viewed on demand, although that feature won’t be included in the local trial.

Now for a few reasons to be skeptical about Sezmi’s prospects:

The trial lineup doesn’t include any of Disney or Fox’s cable networks, or any regional sports networks or premium movie channels. Company co-founder Phil Wiser said the trial offers just a snapshot of what will be available when the company does its official launch, and that it’s still in talks with content providers. I have trouble seeing how Sezmi could compete with ESPN and the Disney Channel, Fox’s news and sports channels, FX, HBO and Showtime. But I also wonder, if they add those channels, how they could stay at $25 all-inclusive price.

The service transmits cable networks over the air, through digital TV frequencies leased from a few local broadcasters. They can use those airwaves much more efficiently than broadcasters can, enabling them to transmit multiple high-definition streams in a single channel. But Sezmi doesn’t have nearly as much bandwidth at its disposal as cable operators do, which means the amount of high-definition programming may be more limited. The company wouldn’t say how much HD it would deliver, just that “the most popular content on the most popular networks will be in HD as available.”

The reliance on over-the-air transmissions for much of the programming means that homes with poor TV reception may not be able to use Sezmi. Company officials say that the “smart reception system” is the highest- performing over-the-air receiver ever built, using multiple technologies to grab signals more reliably than the typical antenna. In fact, Chief Executive Buno Pati said, the company expects to be able to serve 80% to 85% of the customer base in Los Angeles. That’s important because the city is a key market for Sezmi, with the country’s highest number of households that do not subscribe to cable or satellite.

The service takes the walled-garden approach to the Internet, providing access only to the sites it chooses. And at this point, the lineup consists only of YouTube, Crackle, OnNetworks and an array of podcasts. That’s far too thin a sampling of the bounty available online. Company president Phil Wiser said that, as with Sezmi’s selection of cable channels, the lineup of Web programming will be broader at launch.

Finally, the company may emphasize personalized program guides and on-demand viewing, but when it comes to pricing, Sezmi sells channels in bundles that cannot be customized. That’s not much of a change from cable or satellite services, although Sezmi’s prices are far lower. Pati and Wiser put a more positive spin on the company’s approach, saying Sezmi planned to offer only the most popular cable networks in its streamlined bundles. The advantage that Sezmi has TV-over-the-Internet competitors, Wiser said, is that it offers networks “economics that are in line with what they have today” — a cut of Sezmi’s subscription fees, in addition to the revenue the networks generate from advertising. That’s something Hulu can’t do, at least not yet.

Sezmi’s investors don’t seem to mind any of these issues. The company just announced that it has raised an additional $25 million from previous funders Morgenthaler Ventures, Omni Capital, TD Fund, Index Ventures and Legend Ventures, as well as one undisclosed new backer.

The online video directory service Clicker launches Thursday at the NewTeeVee Live conference. If you watch TV, you will love this site.

Clicker is not a full-on video search engine like Bing or Google, and it’s not a video-viewing site like Hulu. It is, instead, a carefully curated directory of full-length video content, with several extremely nice features and user interface flourishes that make it a good first stop online if you’re looking for an episode of your favorite show to watch.

Unlike a search engine, Clicker won’t give you every last shred of online video on your search query. If you’re looking for the “Dr. Horrible Sing-along Blog” on Bing or Google, you’ll get hundreds of clips and related videos. On Clicker, just four: the three 15-minute episodes individually plus all of them combined into one long stream. Each video also has a very good “Related” sidebar showing other videos that are thematically linked. No matter what I threw at it, I found the Related suggestions pertinent.

Clicker’s behind-the-scenes engine is constantly crawling video sources to add and remove content as necessary. The “remove” part is key, as many networks take episodes off the Web as frequently as they add them.

In the Clicker interface, an auto-completing search box that’s focused just on video makes it incredibly fast to find content. Searching within a show (for example, looking for “Clinton” in the Daily Show page) is also very fast, as the search results change in real time as you type.

When you want to watch a video, Clicker plays it either by linking to the source, such as aggregator like Hulu or a network site like that of CBS or AMC, or it displays an embeddable player. This depends on the content owner’s terms of use. Some content is not available for free, but Clicker knows that it can be streamed on Amazon.com or Netflix; Clicker will direct users to log on to their accounts on those services.

This service does an amazing job of taming the morass of online video, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The site has been in private beta for a few months; it is scheduled to go live Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PST.

What’s next

But this isn’t the end of the story for Clicker. The shame of this product is that it is in many ways a better television experience than you can get on your TV. Unless you connect your computer to your living room TV, you’re going to have to sit in front of your PC or laptop when you want to watch a show. A partnership with Boxee will yield a better set-top-like experience for the service, Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone told me. An iPhone player will follow next, and the service will be smart enough not to find videos you can’t play on that device.

From a business perspective, advertising will become a part of the model, although Clicker won’t try to get in the way of pre-roll videos from the content sources. In some key vertical content areas, though, like health and finance, Lanzone thinks there’s a good opportunity. Also, Clicker could end up driving traffic to sites like Hulu and could potentially monetize those click-throughs.

The challenge for Clicker is to get viewers to know about it. A strong SEO effort will be applied to get Google searchers to the site when they’re looking for shows. That will help. There may also be privately labeled versions of the service for various institutions. But–and I rarely say this–this service is good enough to grow organically. Once you try Clicker, you’ll be back again.

Netflix announced this morning that their streaming service would arrive next month on PlayStation 3. The service has already available on Xbox 360 for Xbox LIVE Gold members for nearly a year now. Microsoft, being the first console manufacturer with the service, has responded to the announcement today.

“The Netflix experience on Xbox LIVE is unique and reflects our commitment for social entertainment.” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “We believe we offer an experience today that is a generation ahead of what others are offering,” the spokesperson said. “For a little over $4 a month Xbox LIVE Gold membership is hands-down the best value in home entertainment, and gives you exclusive access multi-player gaming and early demos as well as Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm, “1 vs 100″ and more.”

I doubt anybody pays for Xbox LIVE Gold solely for Netflix? Either way, how will you be using your Netflix service? PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360? As for me, I guess it depends on whatever controller is closer to me.

Microsoft has rolled out an update to its Xbox Live online service that integrates the gaming platform with widely-use social networking platforms, and rolls in more music and video options to expand the appeal of the service beyond merely logging in and fragging enemies. Beginning today, Xbox 360 owners with Xbox Live memberships can tap into social networking service Facebook, microblogging service Twitter, plus tap into music from Last.fmand instant-on HD videos from Zune.

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, in a statement. “Xbox Live’s differentiator has always been our community. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

Xbox Live’s Facebook capabilities will enable users ot automatically generate status updates about what games, movies, or other entertainment they’re pumping through their Xbox, plus other common Facebook actions like viewing their Facebook stream, viewing online photo albums, scanning status updates, and matching up Facebook and Xbox Live friends list. Xbox Live’s Twitter integration enables users to view profiles and conversations, post and reply to tweets, and and follow Twitter trends.

Microsoft is pumping up Xbox Live with Facebook and Twitter, plus music from Last.fm and instant-on HD video from Zune.

The Last.fm integration enables users to create personalized radio stations by indicating whether they like or dislike music tracks; the service keeps an eye on users’ likes and dislikes and creates a custom music stream matching those preferences. Microsoft has also created some predefined “Gamer Stations” for U.S. and UK users. Finally, the new Zune video option offers instant-on HD video at 1080p resolution with 5.1 surround sound audio—and users can share the content with real time voice chat and onscreen avatar integration for Xbox Live “movie nights.” Of course, the “instant-on” functionality relies upon users having enough Internet bandwidth to their Xbox 360 to make the service viable.

The new capabilities are available to Xbox Live Gold members—although Xbox Live Silver member can use the new services for free from November 20 to until November 23, just to see what they might be missing. Xbox Live Gold memberships start at $50 per year, which works out to a little over $4 per month; other pricing plans include $7.99 for one month and $19.99 for three months.

Integrating popular social networking services gives the already-successful Xbox Live service another edge on its competitors…however, don’t expect Sony to rest on its laurels: all indications are that rudimentary Facebook support is coming to the PlayStation 3 any day now.