Rumour: Microsoft Bringing Sky to Xbox Comments

It would be more interesting if they offered iPlayer on the xbox.....

I use PlayTV with my Sony PS3 which works great, would be good if Microsoft could come up with something similar for the X box 360. Freeview provides plenty of channels and I don't want the expense of subscribing to Sky. The X box 360 Hard Drive could be used to store recorded programs in the same way as PlayTV and you have the same USB connection for connecting the Tuner device.

I can see this being very similar to proposed online subscriptions...

http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/news/2008/12/04/Sky-Player-Subscriptions-Now-Available-Online/p1

I suppose it could even play the same streams as the online sub.

just add sky movies for £50 a year on top the standard subscription and I'm sold. For the love of god can we have the iplayer (the iphone has it for goodness sakes)

Could be interesting, most likely be sky content downloadable from marketplace. @andrew You wont find iplayer anywhere near the 360 unless microsoft waves the development fees (mentioned in a interview with the iplayer top dog, no source to be able to link to im afraid)

@Andrew - Believe it or not, it's actually easier to implement iPlayer on the iPhone than it is on the Xbox. The iPhone already has a web browser than can stream video, whereas the Xbox would need a purpose built iPlayer app to do the same job. I'm sure it's on the Beeb's to-do list though.

What has the damn Iplayer got to do with this? Is aunty beeb paying you in kind? It's a flash player that plays repeats of endless drivel.

@hank What is uncle ITV paying you?

The lure of 250 channels of utter tripe and having to pay for it will make the Xbox even more irresistable .....

Every time a story comes up about Microsoft and XBox's push to be more than just a games console I feel compelled to say: IT'S. TOO. FREAKING. LOUD! I have an XBox 360 Elite and I really love it, and agree that more video options (whether Sky or iPlayer, both would be great) would be a good thing... but even when the DVD player is not spinning there is still a noticeable whirr (I don't have a soundproof cabinet to lock it behind... and really don't think that my living room should have to look like a server room).

@ chris It would be as simple as releasing it as an arcade game/plugin and since the xbox already has several plug ins such as inside xbox videos etc it really actually isn't that hard especially since the xbox would have no trouble player even the HD feeds.

@Rob

LOL I must rub my eyes even broadcasters have fanboys. ITV output dwarfs the beeb on drivel.

@Andrew:
Sure, but remember the *unique* way that the BBC is funded. It's all about the money.

Here's an extract from an interview with Anthony Rose, the boss of iPlayer:

'First up, we can divide portable and gaming devices into those that include a web browser (iPhone, Nintendo Wii, Nokia N95, etc) and those that don't (Apple TV, Xbox, most mobile phones, most home media servers, etc).

'For devices with browsers, assuming that those browsers are able to access and display the BBC iPlayer website, getting BBC iPlayer working on those devices "merely" requires us to provide audio and/or video streams in a format that is supported by the media player(s) available on that device.

'For devices without browsers, it becomes necessary to create custom applications that users need to install and run on that device. There's little standardisation across devices, and creating these custom apps is time-consuming and expensive; so for now, we're focusing on browser-enabled devices.'

That was over a year ago, still no Xbox iPlayer...