Microsoft this morning confirmed plans to offer a live television service to users of its Xbox Live service, and hinted that it will include or connect to digital video recording features.

The Xbox Live TV service was announced during the company’s briefing at the E3 video-game convention in Los Angeles. Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten told the crowd that news, sports and local channels would be available to viewers in the U.S. and elsewhere when the service launches this year.

“Central to our vision are television experiences most familiar to us all,” Whitten told the crowd. A preview of the interface (pictured above) included a tile referencing “My DVR.”

No details yet on how the service will be rolled out and priced. Stay tuned. Microsoft already offers a similar service in the U.K. through Sky television and elsewhere overseas.

The company also announced plans to increase the amount of content in its Xbox Live entertainment catalog “from hundreds of thousands to millions.” New partners include Google’s YouTube, which will be available from inside Xbox Live. It will join existing partners including Hulu, Netflix and ESPN.

Notably, the Zune-branded service that currently provides much of Microsoft’s video content wasn’t explicitly mentioned as part of the demo.

In addition, Microsoft showed plans to bring its Bing search engine to Xbox Live as a tool for finding content. Users will be able to use voice commands to search and control the experience, via the microphones in the Kinect motion sensor.

Whitten said the new Xbox Live experience is rolling out this fall.

The E3 event is ongoing here.

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