While the United States normally get the really cool features and services first, we Limeys normally happily sit around patting them on the back while secretly gritting our teeth and stockpiling weapons in Call of Duty.
This time we've got the exclusive! We've got something first! Who needs Netflix? We've got live telly, sports, movies and some episodes of Lie to me to watch!
This all comes at a cost. At first it is all confusing to figure out the levels of options and subscriptions that you really need. We need a flow chart really but I can't do them so you'll have to put up with Ian's special list in memory of those Steve Jackson / Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books we used to love:
1) Got a Gold XBox LIVE membership? Yes? Go to question 2. No? Then you fell over and can't continue.
2) Have you got a Sky subscription? Yes? Go to 4. No? Go to 3.
3) You will have to pay £15 a month to access the Sky Player, and then something extra for movies and sports. End.
4) Have you got Sky Multiroom? Yes? You're okay then, you can use the service for free. You're done. No? Then go to 5.
5) Have you got Sky Unlimited Broadband? Yes? Then you're okay and you can use the service for free.
6) You've got Sky but nothing from 4 or 5 then you must pay £9.75 a month for this service.
There we go that was a bit of fun wasn't it?
Want more info on the extra packages?
£25 - Sky Sports 1 OR Sky Sports 2 + Sky Sports Xtra
£34 - Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 + Sky Sports Xtra
£24 - Sky Movies Screen 1 OR Screen 2
£32 - Sky Movies Screen 1 + Screen 2
£33 - One movie channel + one sports channel + Sky Sports Xtra
£38 - One movie channel + all sports channels, OR vice versa, + Sky Sports Xtra
£41 - All sports and movie channels (From £9 per month extra - ESPN).
The service that Sky are providing is the first of it's kind on a console. They are using the (minimum 2mb) broadband connection to stream live TV or on demand content to the 360. While I would personally have preferred an iPlayer solution this is still something that should be welcomed to the console market.
We've posted a few image over on our BrightKite account if you want to have a look. You can see the complete gallery on our Facebook page. The positives are obvious. You can now access a lot of Sky content on your 360. This is great for families who may have a console in another room and don't want to wire in another box or may have completely run out of terminals on their dish.
You can use the LIVE party feature to watch TV with your mates, the most obvious use of this being football matches or movies.
I'm so glad they used the NXE interface. Not that they wouldn't of course but sometimes very little thought can be put into these services. This is something that doesn't happen with this service, it works well and looks great.
The negatives. Well the connection issues are in the plenty this morning but that should all disappear soon. The subscription prices are a little bit annoying and a lot of families may fall at the first hurdle of not even owning a Gold LIVE account.
Also I'm not keen on the idea of only being able to use on 360 with the Sky Player. If I had more consoles I would want to watch it on any of these devices.
Finally nothing is in High Definition. With the current update Microsoft have proven they can shove the maximum 1080p down your broadband connection for streaming movies from the Zune martketplace. Why can't we have some Sky One shows in HD?
To me the service is not worth the money. This is because I do not have any Sky subscriptions and I have my phone line, broadband and television with Virgin Media. Also the television is already home to my V+ box, so why would I want to flick to my 360 to watch the same stuff?
Overall as I've said the service is more than welcome if not a little pricey and confusing. I really want to see more consoles getting these services and I want to see more providers like the BBC, ITV and Virgin Media offering up this content.
I have a gut feeling that the BBC are going to be bringing an iPlayer channel to the Wii soon and this could begin to change the way we look at our set top boxes.
Let me know your thoughts. Will you be interested in this service? Do you qualify for it? Would you even use it?
Keep pressing those buttons!
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