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Owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console will soon be able to watch science fiction epics as well as play them. Microsoft said that it would offer movies and episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Live online service in the United States, starting November 22.

With the new offerings, Microsoft is joining cable giants and Internet startups on the long list of companies hoping to profit from video downloading. But Internet-based services have had trouble getting traction because it can be complex to send a downloaded film to a television screen and frustrating to watch it on the small screen of a computer. Owners of the Xbox have already connected it to a TV and, in most cases, the Internet.

"What makes this big is that there's no PC in the middle," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. Microsoft has negotiated the rights to rent or sell more than 1,000 hours of material from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Turner Broadcasting, along with the martial arts show "Ultimate Fighting Championship."

Some programs will be available in high definition video. The video store will work much like that of Apple Computer, with some important differences. While users will be able to keep television Xbox Battle shows, movies can be rented for only a limited period. The videos will not be playable on other devices and cannot be burned onto DVDs, but the online service will keep track of purchases so that users can log in to watch their videos on a friend's Xbox.

Peter Moore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for interactive entertainment, said the price of standard-definition videos would be comparable to what competitors charged. Apple's iTunes charges Rs.88.994 for an episode of a television program.

High-definition content will cost more, Moore said, because of the costs involved in storing it and making it available for downloading. Purchases will be made with points that users can buy with a credit card or a gift certificate, or win in contests.

Moore said the service was partly intended to make the Xbox more versatile and therefore more attractive. "Direct revenue from this over the long term could be important," Moore said. "But this is also another reason to buy an Xbox 360”.

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