Sky Player on Xbox 360 – Fail!

Regardless of the title this post actually has nothing to do with the “technical issues” that caused Sky Player to get pulled from the Xbox dashboard today

It’s to do with the way it’s been priced

There are two ways to get Sky Player on your Xbox

As an existing Sky customer

If you are a Sky customer and have multi-room (or Sky broadband unlimited) you already get access to the existing Sky Player service on the Sky website and now you also get access to Sky Player on the Xbox at no extra charge

If you don’t have multi room you can add this on or buy an online multi-room option (between £5 and £10 a month extra)

As a non Sky customer

You basically have to take out a subscription (you also need to be an Xbox Gold member)

These subscriptions work in a similar way to a standard Sky subscription in that they start at £15 for the base “Entertainment Pack” and then if you want sports and movies you have to add these on at extra cost

So why do i see this as a massive fail?

I don’t see the point – if you already subscribe to Sky then all you are actually gaining is another platform to consume Sky content on

If you aren’t a Sky customer then what really is the point? If you wanted to sign up and pay a monthly figure then surely you would just get a Sky dish?

Just signing up for Xbox package you got no HD capability and no Sky+ option

As far as I see it people who have an Xbox are in one of two camps

Kids or Adults

Kids wont be paying for the Sky subscription so they get no say in this (you can’t pay with MS points)

If the parents are already paying for a Sky subscription it’s an easy way to put Sky content into their children’s room

For Adults who would be paying a Sky subscription then as I said above if i wanted Sky on a full time I’d sign up for it through a dish. My Xbox is on my main TV so even if I did have a Sky subscription I wouldn’t be gaining anything at all

Also looking at some of the options the Xbox only option works out more expensive and if you spent that sort of money Sky would throw in a phone line and broadband connection! So where is the incentive?

There really should have been some sort of pay-per-view option

I’d quite happily use my MS Points to grab a football match, watch Lost or the Simpsons or anything that took my fancy on a casual basis. This would also mean you could grab the teenage market if they could watch content on a casual basis using MS Points. Currently they have spending power at all for this!

I was really exciting when the it was first announced the service was on the way. It added to Microsoft’s vision of the Xbox being the entertainment hub of the home.

I’m just feeling massively disappointed

From a couple of Xbox blogs and forums I’ve seen already I don’t think I’m alone with my opinion

Also before I really get started I haven’t even looked to see if the content is subtitled. Video marketplace has a distinct lack of digital accessibility but I’ve ranted about that plenty of times before!

It would be good if a pay-per-view option were to become available in the future but I wont hold my breath

I’d love to hear your opinion

Other Links

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-3766-Microsoft-and-Sky-s-Official-Xbox-Sky-Player-Price-Plan-&-Channel-Listing-Announced.html (read the comments!)

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/sky-on-xbox-all-your-questions-answered-603561