Microsoft has announced that it is to bring rich media technologies including Silverlight to Xbox Live within the next year.

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Silverlight allows advertisers to deliver interactive, interconnected online campaigns across multiple platforms.

Sean Alexander, director at Microsoft's Advertising Business Group, told MediaPost that the technology will enable companies to build advertising campaigns that span four screens: desktop, television, mobile phone, and Surface.

"Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a web browser," according to the report, and will presumably feature on the Xbox Live dashboard.

Ads on Xbox Live are something that have been discussed amongst Live users since the service began, namely as a way to eradicate the annual subscription fee.

How do you feel about advertising appearing on Xbox Live?

If it means getting xbox live free then I think it would be a great benefit to xbox live, but only if the ads don't degrade what xbox live currentely has! It would suck and get quite annoying if every option you went to had a pop up saying 'buy me!'.

But then again, why even bother suggesting that the Gold service will be free? It is Microsoft we are talking about... Really, what do you guys/girls think?