Sony & Microsoft Battle For Online Distribution

Microsoft has acquired exclusive rights to season two of popular web series The Guild according to the Hollywood Reporter. The twelve episode series will debut exclusively on Xbox LIVE, MSN and Zune. After a four week period episodes will move to an embedded MSN video player on watchtheguild.com. Microsoft has lined up Sprint as a sponsor and will sell all advertising on its platforms and on the web.

Meanwhile, Sony’s Crackle is about to launch its next season of original programming. On Monday six new shows will debut, with new episodes released weekly in addition to Rocketboom daily which the digital studio acquired distribution rights to earlier this year.

Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation have been locked in battle over their competing Trojan horse devices in the living room for years and while these deals aren’t a major source of revenue for either company, digital content distribution is an area consumer electronics companies see as crucial as all content distribution toward IP delivery. Something has to fill the void as DVD and Blu-Ray sales continue to disappoint.