People love to watch digital video, and the Xbox 360 is one of the big ways they are doing that.
Microsoft revealed today that 42 percent of Xbox Live subscribers watch 30 hours of movie and TV content each month and that 40 percent of the Xbox Live audience are women, according to Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner. The executive was speaking onstage today during Microsoft’s annual financial-analysts meeting.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":815152,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Xbox Live is Microsoft’s online service. It has a subscription-based tier, called Xbox Live Gold, that gives gamers access to online multiplayer and streaming-video services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video (on top of the fees that those services charge).
With 42 percent of subscribers using Xbox Live to watch at least 30 hours of video, it’s likely that many Xbox 360 owners treat the console as their primary video-streaming device.
While Microsoft might have started Xbox Live Gold as a means to generate revenue for online multiplayer, the video content in now just as important. The high percentage of women in the Xbox Live audience shows that the content helps build value for Xbox Live Gold among a wider audience.
Of course, most other devices do not charge a monthly fee to access Netflix and other streaming services.
Netflix is free to access on PlayStation 3, Wii U, and mobile devices after you pay your Netflix bill, of course. Yet Microsoft seems like it is making a lot of money from consumers who are happy to pay for Xbox Live Gold on top of their Netflix subscription. It doesn’t have any plans to remove the paywall for streaming-video services on Xbox One.