Microsoft Xbox One Gets Verizon FiOS TV App For Live TV

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) announced on Tuesday that the Xbox One will now feature an app allowing FiOS TV subscribers to view up to 74 live channels. The FiOS TV app is integrated with the Xbox One’s Kinect voice and camera sensor to enable hand and voice gestures for changing channels and pausing live TV.

The app is available for download now, but only for Verizon FiOS TV subscribers who also pay for the premium Xbox Live Gold service. The app is only available to owners of the Xbox One who live in the U.S.

Channels available on the app include the NFL Network, HBO, Nickelodeon, FX and Comedy Central. Here is a full list of FiOS TV channels now available on the Xbox One app.

The app requires only Xbox One hardware, so it can be used in a room without a Verizon FiOS television converter box, or “cable box.” Using the Xbox One’s HDMI passthrough and app snapping feature, the app can be used in tandem with a FiOS box to enable a split-screen television experience.

Verizon was the first cable television provider to bring live TV to the Xbox One, as it released a similar app for the Xbox 360 two years ago. Comcast released an Xfinity app for on-demand television content early in 2012, and Time Warner Cable released an Xbox app this past summer. The Time Warner Cable app was updated yesterday to provide on-demand content, including 5,000 on-demand titles.

The app will not quell critics of the Xbox One who complain that the device does not properly support DVR functions or on-demand content, as the app only supports live broadcasts on select channels, with access based on the user’s cable TV subscription plan. Microsoft has so far sold two million Xbox One consoles since its release in November. Verizon added 135,000 FiOS TV subscribers in the third quarter of 2013, for a total of 5.2 million customers.

Follow Thomas Halleck on Twitter