Techradar are today reporting that the MSN Video player in the UK, which currently allows UK citizens to catch up on TV and watch film trailers, has signed a deal with Paramount Studios to bring full length films to the service too; what’s more is that these films will be free.
The MSN Video Player has only recently left beta testing and, as I understand it, is very much like Hulu in the US. Microsoft seem to be keen to position this service as the main service in the UK to offer free online videos. The advantage that Microsoft have with this service over each individual channel’s catch up offering is that this offers TV shows from all channels and not just from within the last week or month, like on the BBC iPlayer.
If Microsoft are also able to offer free films which might well be of the likes of Transformers or Indiana Jones then they could rapidly increase the popularity of the service.
However Microsoft have not said when the films can be expected to appear on the service or how many will be available at any one time. It is thought this film deal will also spread to the other Video Players across Europe in the coming months.
As good as this service will be it seems to directly compete with the Zune Marketplace which offers rentable movies, to me it would make more sense to promote Zune with free movies rather than the MSN video service which I don’t believe has much of a future going forward. If Microsoft want to position Zune as the entertainment service to use then surely this is where Microsoft should be focussing its efforts, maybe when Zune finally launches globally in the latter half of this year will we see these kind of services merged.
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