Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:27
Sky Player has officially launched on Xbox Live with 24 channels available to watch without a dish. It's having a bit of a nightmare at the moment though and keeps crashing.
Xbox Live Gold members with at least 2Mb broadband and either a Sky TV or Sky Player subscription can watch Sky One, MTV and Sky Arts, among other channels.
Non-Sky TV customers can subscribe to the service from £15 a month for the Entertainment Pack, it says, but for sports channels it'll cost you an additional £19 per month - ouch.
Terrestrial channels are not available initially and programmes will also not be shown in HD, because broadband speeds in Britain are "simply not good enough", says Sky's David Mercer.
"For BSkyB it offers further evidence that its future subscriber growth is not dependent on its traditional satellite set-top box strategy," he said.
"For Microsoft it is further confirmation that the Xbox is on its way to becoming not just a games console, but rather a complete home entertainment system."
Sky's Griff Parry added: "More channels are being added all the time and we're confident terrestrial broadcasters will join."