I’ve long said that there’s only one thing holding me back from tossing my cable box in favor of getting all my TV online: live sports.

In particular, I’d really miss ESPN, the legendary all-sports cable and satellite network that keeps me company at lunchtime, gets me all prepped for the NFL on Sunday, and serves up more live tennis that you could swing a racket at.

So I’m pretty psyched to see this report from the New York Times, which claims (via “people close to the talks”) that Microsoft is having “in-depth” negotiations with ESPN parent Disney about delivering “live streams of sporting events” to Xbox Live subscribers for a “per-subscriber fee.”

Now, before we get too excited, let’s note that the NYT says that a deal between Microsoft and ESPN for the new streaming channel is “not imminent,” and it sounds like we’re not talking about a simulcast of ESPN or ESPN2 on Xbox Live. Instead, expect something more along the lines of ESPN 360, the streaming on-the-Web video service that delivers selected live sporting events (like Australian Open tennis, college hoops, and soccer) to “participating” high-speed Internet service providers. (Naturally enough, my ISP—Time Warner Cable—isn’t participating. What a shock.)

Read More:

http://tech.yahoo.com/

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