During the past few years, both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have branched out and expanded their repertoire of multimedia features to include television content. While Sony teamed up with the ABC and Yahoo!7 to bring free-to-air content to the PS3, Microsoft went down the pay-TV route and brought subscription-based service, Foxtel, to the Xbox 360. While Microsoft's initial TV push might have been with a commercial network, the software giant has now aligned itself with two public broadcasters.

　　Today Microsoft Australia announced that the ABC's iView and SBS's SBS On Demand catch-up streaming services would be brought over to the Xbox 360. No time frame has been given as to when the two new channels will arrive on Aussie Xbox 360s aside from "soon." However, one good piece of news is that you won't require an Xbox Live Gold subscription (as Foxtel on Xbox 360 currently does) to access the content, making it available to all Xbox 360 owners with an Internet connection.

　　Microsoft confirmed that both iView and SBS on Demand will also be compatible with the Kinect's voice commands. This feature was missing when the motion-sensing hardware launched locally, but it is due for a rollout in Australia before the end of the year.

　　This announcement coincides with news overnight from Microsoft that saw almost 40 media partners signing up to stream video content to Xbox 360s around the world. While most content syndication deals are only for specific regions, some, like YouTube, Crackle, and The Daily Motion, will be available on consoles globally.