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Microsoft seeking TV exec to develop original Xbox programming?

Microsoft seeking TV exec to develop original Xbox programming?

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Bloomberg reports that MIcrosoft is seeking a TV executive to develop original shows for Xbox.

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Microsoft's in the midst of bringing television to the Xbox 360, with 40 content partners promised by early 2012. Now, Bloomberg reports, the company is seeking a TV executive to develop shows of its own. The publication's anonymous sources say that two former NBC executives have been approached, but it's not a done deal. Microsoft may not hire anyone at all if it can't find the right person, they added.

Either way, it wouldn't be an unprecedented move. Microsoft tapped Hollywood producer Peter Safran to produce a series of short film pilots for Xbox Live way back in 2008, and was allegedly discussing an entire TV channel for Xbox with former News Corporation President Peter Chernin back in 2010. It even tried to attract Conan O'Brien to the platform around the same period. Of course, the firm's looking at production talent for games, too — Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski just signed an exclusive agreement to produce titles for Xbox and Windows Phone. Microsoft just loves Hollywood these days.