People's Choice Awards Will Air on Xbox 360 Tonight

CBS will televise the People’s Choice awards tonight, but will also simulcast the event live through Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Xbox 360 gaming console. Xbox users who have an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription will be able to catch the red carpet festivities beginning at 8 p.m. EST with the actual awards show going on at 9 p.m. EST.

CBS and Microsoft have teamed up to give viewers complete interaction. Using the Xbox controller, viewers will be able to answer any poll or trivia questions and chime in and give feedback on performances or red carpet events.

This isn’t the first event Xbox has broadcasted before, with past events such as presidential debates and Video Game Awards. This event just reiterates the growing popularity of streaming videos around the world.

YouTube continues to be at the forefront of streaming videos, with Hulu and Netflix close behind. According to a recent report, Informa (News - Alert) Telecoms & Media, suggest the online video market will be worth $37 billion by 2017.

“It’s clear that online video, today, is worth much more than the digital cents and dimes of yore, and is attracting real, and growing, revenues,” said Giles Cottle, author of “OTT Video Revenue Forecasts” add principal analyst at Informa, in a recent interview.

Also, according to the report, the United States remains the market leader for online videos, but it’s expected that Asia and Europe will begin to close in on the revenue share. With Netgear (News - Alert) recently announcing its new NeoTV PRIME with Google TV, on top of market giants Apple (News - Alert), YouTube, Netlfix and Hulu, outsiders trying to break into the video streaming market and make a serious push may find it to be more difficult.

“But this value is concentrated around a select few players. We estimate that Apple, Google (News - Alert), Netflix and the Global broadcasters (including Hulu), combined, account for about 70 percent of all online video revenue today – so if you aren’t one of these players, then chances are you aren’t making a great deal of money from online delivery today,” he added.