ESPN will launch a redesign of its live-streaming sports service on Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console on Aug. 25 -- timed for the start of the college football season -- with enhanced personalization and navigation features.
Through a deal ESPN and Microsoft struck in June 2010, broadband subscribers of Internet service providers that offer ESPN3.com are able to access hundreds of live sporting events on their Xbox 360 console through the Xbox Live subscription service. That includes more than 400 regular season college football games and 31 bowl games.
New features in next month's ESPN on Xbox Live upgrade include a split-screen function to watch two events at once; a refined voice control through Microsoft's Kinect controller for the Xbox that provides skip, play, pause and rewind functions; and a "My Sports" section to let users pick their favorite sports and teams to provide a personalized feed of news and highlights.
"The new ESPN on Xbox Live is going to the take the sports viewing experience to the next level," ESPN vice president of games and partnerships Raphael Poplock said. "By putting fans in control through better personalization and interactive features, we're able to deliver live events, highlights and more from ESPN in unique and innovative ways."
Other features include a mini-guide that provides a preview of content at the bottom of the screen, a live college football scoreboard, the ability to tag games and set reminders, live alerts and the option to view the ESPN BottomLine scroll of scores and breaking news at the bottom of the screen.
Other content offered through ESPN360 include live games and highlights from the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, soccer, golf and tennis.
Affiliates that offer ESPN3.com include Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks and Suddenlink Communications. However, currently the ESPN3 on Xbox is not supported by Time Warner Cable or Bright House.
More information about ESPN on Xbox Live is available at www.xbox.com/espn.
