ESPN and Microsoft Join for Xbox Live Sports Programming

ESPN and Microsoft have announced a deal to add standard and high-definition sports, television shows and videogame programming to the Xbox Live service.

The list of sporting events available on the service includes full-length NCAA football and basketball games, Summer X-Games 13, the World Series of Poker, The Contender, Madden Nation and more. Xbox 360 owners can access the shows and events through the video download service on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

"Establishing this relationship with Microsoft on [a href="http://www.xbox.com"]Xbox 360 provides an innovative way to reach our target demographic through this dynamic next-generation entertainment console," said Matt Murphy, senior vice president of digital video distribution at Disney and ESPN Media Networks. "This agreement embodies our mission to deliver the best sports content to fans, and does it through an exciting and robust platform that reaches millions of people."

Microsoft Senior Director Ross Honey added, "This is a natural fit for us, as so many Xbox 360 owners are huge sports fans. We are dedicated to providing our diverse community of Xbox Live users the premium entertainment content they want, and partnering with ESPN is a great example of our continued dedication in the video-on-demand space, especially in high definition."