Clear Channel And Microsoft Expand Strategic Partnership By Bringing The New iHeartRadio To Xbox Live
Clear Channel And Microsoft Expand Strategic Partnership By Bringing The New iHeartRadio To Xbox Live
Will Offer Kinect for Xbox 360 Users a First of Its Kind Experience – The Ability to Control Digital Radio in the Living Room with Your Voice and Body
Features Include Access to More Than 800 of the Nation’s Most Popular Broadcast and Digital-Only Stations Plus User-Created Custom Stations
New York, NY – Oct. 5, 2011 – Clear Channel Radio, the leading media company in America with a greater audience reach than any radio or television outlet, announced it has expanded its multi-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to integrate the New iHeartRadio , Clear Channel’s free, industry-leading digital radio service, into Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the number one selling entertainment console in the United States.
Beginning this winter, the New iHeartRadio will be available for free to Xbox LIVE Gold members. Through this new agreement, Gold members who have Kinect for Xbox 360 can use the product’s revolutionary sensor to experience an entertainment first: the ability to control digital radio in their living room using their voice and body. Gold members who have Xbox 360, but do not have Kinect, can operate the New iHeartRadio using their controller. Regardless of whether they have Kinect or not, all Xbox 360 Gold members will have access to the New iHeartRadio’s features, including more than 800 of the nation's most popular live broadcast and digital-only radio stations from 150 cities, plus custom stations with more songs, better music intelligence and more user control.
Xbox 360 users will be able to connect their New iHeartRadio accounts to Xbox LIVE for immediate access to many of the New iHeartRadio services and compelling social features through iHeartRadio’s relationship with Facebook. This initiative builds on Clear Channel and Microsoft’s previous partnerships to integrate iHeartRadio on Windows Phone 7 as well as to stream the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the incredibly successful two-day concert event which took place Sept. 23 and 24 in Las Vegas, in HD exclusively on the Xbox 360.
“Clear Channel is committed to innovation and deep social integration. We want to continually deliver new experiences that consumers have never seen before – like the recent launch of the New iHeartRadio, which combines broadcast and digital-only stations and user-created stations in one service for the first time,” said John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “The New iHeartRadio’s integration with the Xbox 360 means that Kinect users will enable listeners to control digital radio in their living room using just their voice and body. There is nothing else like it on the market and it’s another example of how we are committed to being wherever our listeners are with the programming and services they want and expect.”
“Our partnership with Clear Channel Radio and the New iHeartRadio marks a significant milestone in our vision to bring you all the TV entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Pete Thompson, General Manager, Xbox LIVE. “By bringing the New iHeartRadio to Xbox LIVE and adding the magic of Kinect, we are transforming the way consumers experience entertainment forever.”