BT Vision through Xbox 360

BT and Microsoft have teamed up to allow Xbox 360 owners to access BT Vision - the telecom provider's TV-on-demand service with those annoying adverts - through their consoles from the middle of 2008.

The service will be offered in the UK to people so that they can continue to take advantage of Xbox 360 services - such as instant messaging - while they watch TV, rather than having to use a traditional set-top box.

In case the silly ads haven't explained it properly, BT Vision is a Freeview (bundled free-to-air digital television channels, foreigners) and digital video recorder (DVR) combo which can be received through BT Broadband.

All this 360 stuff came to light at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas overnight, where Microsoft also revealed that Xbox Live has hit ten million subscribers "a full six months ahead of schedule".

While the platform holder doesn't specify how many of those are "Gold" accounts, it's still a very nice figure to go with last week's 17.7 million consoles sold.

Finally, the company revealed that Disney-ABC Television and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) will be joining the list of networks and studios offering content to US gamers via Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store.

There wasn't much else to shout about though, as Patrick reveals in his first-hand report, although he did get some nice snaps of Bill Gates playing Guitar Hero with Slash, and a good one of Robbie Bach standing in front of the words "The Terminator". Stand back, Internet, we're coming through.