Xbox Live is the next platform after iOS to get the MTV app Viacom rolled out in June, but users must be both Xbox Live and pay-TV subscribers to access streams of full episodes. August 13, 2013 7:21 AM PDT (Credit: MTV) It may still be shy of Roku's hundreds and hundreds of channels, but Xbox Live is getting one more app Tuesday: MTV's. The app, which first rolled out to iOS in June, hosts on-demand streaming of shows, while integrating elements of its past apps like video extras. In other words, it puts some "second screen" entertainment on the "first screen" through Xbox. Related stories The 404 1,308: Where we sweat it out with Sphere (podcast) Post-YouTube, MTV revives the video star -- briefly I want my MTV, again But to check out full episodes, users must have a subscription from a participating TV provider. Xbox Live Gold subscriptions also cost $5 a month with a one-year signup. It underscores the difficulty of so-called "over-the-top" television providers of getting TV content to users without those users having to already be subscribers of a pay-TV service that beams the same content right to them. Digital rights for such content have been a key sticking point in the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and CBS, with the cable company aiming to preserve the kind of authentication the MTV app on Xbox Live requires, only for CBS's popular programming.
Xbox Live is the next platform after iOS to get the MTV app Viacom rolled out in June, but users must be both Xbox Live and pay-TV subscribers to access streams of full episodes.
(Credit: MTV)
It may still be shy of Roku's hundreds and hundreds of channels, but Xbox Live is getting one more app Tuesday: MTV's.
The app, which first rolled out to iOS in June, hosts on-demand streaming of shows, while integrating elements of its past apps like video extras. In other words, it puts some "second screen" entertainment on the "first screen" through Xbox.
Related stories
- The 404 1,308: Where we sweat it out with Sphere (podcast)
- Post-YouTube, MTV revives the video star -- briefly
- I want my MTV, again
But to check out full episodes, users must have a subscription from a participating TV provider. Xbox Live Gold subscriptions also cost $5 a month with a one-year signup.
It underscores the difficulty of so-called "over-the-top" television providers of getting TV content to users without those users having to already be subscribers of a pay-TV service that beams the same content right to them. Digital rights for such content have been a key sticking point in the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and CBS, with the cable company aiming to preserve the kind of authentication the MTV app on Xbox Live requires, only for CBS's popular programming.
