Microsoft's latest hire points to rise of interactive TV on Xbox - Report

Microsoft could be gearing up to attack the world of digital TV, following the hire of Nancy Tellem, who was television chief at american TV giant CBS. Tellem was hired to head up a new Xbox content studio, suggesting that Microsoft is looking to go large on TV content soon, or into the next-gen.

Read Write Web has been sleuthing Microsoft's hiring of Tellem, and notes that Tellem has an impressive work history, having greenlit shows like CSI, Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens to name a few. Tellem also helped create Friends and ER.

So it's clear that Tellem knows the TV business inside out, but what will she be doing as head of a new studio at Microsoft? Well, the studio Tellem is heading up is the same that produced Kinect and the Xbox itself, according to Read Write Web.

The report also suggests that a Microsoft descriptor for Tellem's role suggests the exec will work on, "interactive and linear content for Xbox and other devices. In addition to running the production studio, she will help spearhead the company’s efforts to turn Xbox into a destination where consumers can enjoy all their entertainment in one place.”

Read Write Web ran Tellem's hire past Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty, who suggested that she has been brought in to secure new content to compete with YouTube and Netflix, entering the Xbox format into something of a bidding war for top-tier content.

Doherty said of Tellem's hire, “[Tellem] probably is the most important influx of new DNA, entertainment DNA, into a tech company, since Terry Semel at Yahoo." That's not a small deal by any measure.

It sounds like Microsoft is getting serious on TV content, but does this phase you? Do you watch digital content on your Xbox 360, or is it something that doesn't interest you? Let us know below.

Thanks again, Read Write Web.