New Apps now available for Xbox LIVE Members

Building upon an our catalog of live and on-demand TV shows, movies, sports and music and continuing to deliver locally relevant content to Xbox LIVE members around the globe, the following apps will be available* in various regions on Xbox LIVE starting today:

  • Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
  • Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany
  • Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada

At CES, we also announced a new partnership with News Corporation, and will soon bring FOX broadcast programming, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News Channel and IGN to Xbox LIVE. News Corp. apps are scheduled to launch in 2012, so prepare to watch your favorite FOX shows, including “Family Guy,” “House,” “New Girl” and “Glee,” have access to Dow Jones Newswire and MarketWatch from The Wall Street Journal and enjoy game previews, reviews, gameplay videos from IGN, all on-demand. 

I’d also like to share our most recent usage stats that illustrate our community’s excitement around Xbox 360 becoming more personal, engaging and social through Xbox LIVE:

  • The hours of video consumed globally on Xbox LIVE increased 140 percent from 2010 to 2011.
  • In December more than 60 percent of U.S. Xbox LIVE Gold members used entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE – for an average of an hour a day each.
  • The number of people using entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE increased by nearly 50 percent globally from November to December.

We are committed to enhancing and expanding our global entertainment offerings on Xbox LIVE in 2012. Moving forward, you can expect to see more of the world’s leading entertainment providers coming to Xbox and a continued rollout of additional entertainment apps.

*Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or additional subscriptions/fees may be required. Kinect functionality available with select Xbox LIVE content and varies by feature and country. For additional details and availability, see http://www.xbox.com/live.