Sky High Comments by Ellie Gibson

It's not going to be cheap. That's for sure. But that is still an excellent proposition for the Xbox. I am very interested. In all honesty, for the right price and with the right content, I would say goodbye to scheduled TV forever.

i currently pay 13 quid for BT Vision and love it with the back catalogue available through the tv pack and the on demand service. What it is lacking in is sports.

If this is competitively priced and offers the same content as normal sky sports then consider me SOLD. wont be too interested in the movies but the standard pack + sports would be pure win.

Good move MS lets just for once see some great pricing.

Surely most 360 owners would have Sky or some sort of other digital package, not too sure there is a massive market for this.

360 in "Me too" shocker.

Too late. Too shit to try and vendor-lock-in your customers.

"There will also be a wait for high-definition content, if it ever arrives at all. "Right now, we're committing to bringing standard definition and DVD-quality content to the Xbox," says Johnson. "But we'll always be evaluating, based on technical limitations and consumer demand."


Hahahahhahaha.... 360 degrees of shit

This I personally feel is Netflix plus announcement for people from here in the UK, now we need LoveFilm like streaming service and then Microsoft will be a go to box.

@El Dev: For me it is I don't wanna buy a sky box for the bedroom but if they have there full on demand catalogue for every category, and we still get the on demand content from the likes of Sky One etc. Then as long as you have an exceptional connection, a gold member, and have/or thinking about going sky - you won't need the dish, there setup box etc. I say win win.

And everyone who moans about being gold is retarded the cost for maintaining and expanding servers to allow for more connections is about £40 per year. More people should buy gold membership as I would rather being games on Live than my PS3.

Linkifield: Sky don't really offer an on demand service, just what is on the Sky player on line or anytime TV(only available to Sky+ users I think). I have never used the on line player so I'm not too sure what is available on it. I suppose not having to buy a Sky box is a good thing for bedroom use but I think it'll be an expensive method of watching Sky depending how long you are in your bedroom, a TV with built in freeview is more than adequate for myself but I don't really watch a lot of TV.

@El-Dev: Youve never used it well I have, if your a current subscriber theres quite a bit of free ontent that you can access at any time, i.e. on demand. And yes some of the on demand stuff costs a nominal charge but hey ho thats a given for episodes of prison break. And of course theres the new sky player, for live tv as well. There is quite a bit of video content sky offers free to subscribers and/or to pay certainly better than microsofts video store unless they will overhaul that this year, but I feel this is to what Netflix did for the Xbox 360 brand image in the us

This is amazing!

Only last week, my Sky HD box messed up and I missed an episode of 24 so set up sky player on my PC to watch it and it was great but this means I can easily watch it on my big tv without lots of new cables!! You can watch the last 4 programs of a series for free but older episodes cost a pound something.

Infact I will probably buy a new 360 for my bedroom so I can watch it all in my bedroom as well as i'm loathed to pay the extra £15 a month for a sky box there..

Goals on Sunday without getting out of bed = win!

I can see loads of kids wanting this for their bedroom 360s and may even sell quite a few units if kids choose the 360 over other consoles because they can nab their parents sky subscription.

Hmmm, not too sure about this. On the one hand it's a nice bonus for those who already have sky subscriptions but if it's priced along the lines of Sky Player.... well let's be honest it's a bit light on content for what you pay isn't it? £34 for access to the three Sky Sport channels plus a handful of other channels that you're probably not going to use that often (out of those available I'd be surprised if I personally used more than Eurosport).

Compare and contrast to the Netflix deal in the US - less than $20 for access to their entire move catalogue on demand - and it seems VERY expensive. Shame really.

@ BOFH_UK yer I agree its not the best value unless of course you can not have a dish and dont live in a cabled area but if you already have a subscription to SKy its fantastic news!

Here are some screens of it in action, looks slick to me!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php...

Notice you can watch sky one and the football can be watched full screen or in party mode with your avatars chatting!

SKY and the Murdoch empire will push this like a MFer imo

It'd be madness if you have to pay for that AND Sky on top of things if you have it already. Shame you can't get the proper Sky service but naturally that would incur installation charges etc. If they can shoehorn all that functionality in the future though, its one step nearer the one box dream. Best scenario for me is TV has 2 things sat under it, amp and entertainments box. If this takes off well, Sky might have a word...

Although there is the one huge massive problem that stopped me going for Play TV. Noise. The PS3 is meant to be the quiet machine and it was still would be too much to have its fan going on in the background all the time while watching TV. "Hroooooooo"

More features is all round good stuff, I don't see anyone crying "ITS A GAMES CONSOLE ONLY MAKE GAMES" either which is unusual for once.

So actually going round a friends house to do anything is officially dead then!

How will Microsoft stop people taking the Xbox round other peope's houses so that they have sky on your subscription?

Hmm. I can see how this might be a nice addition to the 360's functional palette if you're not a Sky customer.

But I'm already a Sky HD subscriber. Giving me another way to deliver content I can already access albeit in a substandard SD form hardly excites me.

One thing I will say, Sky have continued to impress me over the years in terms of providing new services and functionality (Multi-Start, Sky Anytime, Sky Player, the new HD EPG etc etc). If they have a hand in developing the service, it actually might be quite good.

Microsoft and British Sky Broadcasting go together quite well. Gates empire and Murdochs empire are both evil in different ways and will likely compliment each other rather well.

I'd tap that.

You can see where the market's going to be - people who don't have Sky who can't be arsed going to the pub to watch a football match. Tie that in with the impulse-buy mechanic of MS Points and you have an insta-win situation.

Need to see more details on pricing before I can fully comment. If there is decently priced pay-per-view contents then this is a real winner for me. THe idea of accessing Sky content for me on an infrequent basis is much better than the over-priced subscriptions they usually want to tie you in to (for people like me who don't watch a huge amount of telly)....

I'll be keeping an eye on this O.o

Just got rid of Sky+ HD as the cost/content ratio was utterly shit. I guess this way I haven't lost everything, but as mentioned, none of this stuff is going to be cheap.

For the most part I am now sticking with BT Vision. Much cheaper, and HD content.

@JohnnyWashnGo How sad, I guess from your point of view Sony are somehow different?


As far as payments go I expect it will be like netflix in the US, you'll need a gold live account and Sky subscription to get everything, otherwise you'll need a gold live account and have to pay for individual programs as you can on your PC but that will not get you the live channels.

The big winners here are the people who have both as I and I know quite a few people who will also benefit (I dont think I know anyone without sky!)

The XBOX 360 is turning into a Chav sports system...

I love the 360 but my respect for it has just dropped alot.

:-(

@GamerG
Nope - Sony are just as bad as the others. However, I don't think they are in the same league as Microsoft and certainly nowhere near Murdoch.

'I dont think I know anyone without sky!'
Me, me, I don't have Sky. Never have done and never will. I don't watch television enough to make it worth the stupid amount of money it costs per month. If you like sports or find reading difficult, Sky is perfect for you. Myself, I can't stand sports.

@ S.J.Rogers

WHAT?

You can watch Sky on it so now its a "chav sports system"

Your reaching mate you really are


Its pretty pathetic seeing the people trying to discredit this new feature, you all know its going to be very popular, loads of people have sky and loads of people will like having an extra box in the house, get over yourselves!

I've already got sky WTF do I want it on my360 for?

@ JohnnyWashnGo

MS Sony are all Mega Corporations and they all act in the same way for the benefit of shareholders, for example Sony has installed vulnerable Spyware on their music CDs and driven companies like Sega out of the console business with a succession of lies that they never intended to keep, they also stamp over patent law regularly and have to pay up all the time when taken to court. At least Bill Gates gives most of MS's profits away to extremely good causes!

You are just exposed to what MS and Murdoch do more because they based in thethe US and what goes on in Japan is more tight lipped and not scrutinised as much at least my our media.

Its pretty sad that you try to discredit this feature by suggesting people read books instead, I mean why play games then or use the internet or go to the movies?

If this doesn't effect you because you are a PS3 only owner then why are you even in this thread?! Patehtic if you ask me, go read a book!!

@ wayneh

If the 360 and your sky box are in the same room you can use your 360 to watch on demand programming for instance the last 4 episodes of all Sky's major series like 24 and Battle star Galactica when ever you want (older episodes are about £1)

You could also move the 360 to a different room and watch some live channels there along with the on demand service

I'm not really the right market for this. I don't watch enough TV to warrant spending £15 a month extra on it. I realise that for many this will be a great move though.


"The XBOX 360 is turning into a Chav sports system...
I love the 360 but my respect for it has just dropped alot."


Love? Respect? Its a box full of metal and plastic ffs. Get what you can from it, and ignore the features you don't like. Simple.

Fanboy lunacy.

So this is what the J Allard wand is for then?

So not the set top box taking over consoles as Mr Ubisoft thought but consoles taking over set top boxes.

To be honest I'll doubt I'll ever use this feature (I have a full Virgin media subscription), but I do think it's a fantastic idea and at least it gives the option for a couple more on demand movies if Virgin's and MS's catalouges don't excite (though I expect 95-99.9% overlap). Or if I miss an episode of some Sky One program (and the 15+ repeats on Skys 1-3 (and didn't V+ it)).

Downloadable content sounds ok - still waiting for the PS3 movie download service promised here in Aus. But a live sports event? You fellas better have a much better internet connection than me; I can imagine the legovision slideshow it will turn into during a Germany penalty shootout.

Party function is typical service designed by poindexters though if they reckon watching the footy on your own with someone yelling on a headset and waving a cartoon avatar is anything like having mates and a slab of beer in the same room.

:)

Yesterday I was saying that consoles and sky boxes would remain seperate because of the corporate deals that would need to be done to get the whole experience into one box. I guess for once Microsoft actually saw the whole picture and were already making the necessary deals!

Come on Sony don't be left behind yet again!

For those concerned about quality, I already subscribe to a broadband sports channel and whilst it isn't broadcast quality it most certainly isn't poor quality and I was surprised at how good it is.

I wouldn't worry about the streaming tech, I signed up for the netflix service (before european xbox's got banned from the service) and was able to stream HD (you may laugh but it was certainly better than DVD) from the US servers no problem, it should be even better with more local servers

I am at uni and i use sky player alot through my familys home sky account. The movie selection is massive, something like 500 films. You get the extended highlights of all the premier league and champions league matches. Aswell as the live channels.
Its definatly worth checking out if you have sky already.

If you can pay for one off footie matches/tv episodes, i'd certainly take part. Don't really want to sign up for a monthly contract though.

Sounds good in theory, but I'm not holding my breath on this one. I seem to recall a previous "deal" with BT to bring us IPTV. Where's that? HD appears even more unlikely.

Having said that, this type of service is a move in the right direction. Sky+ is not really much of a substitute for a true on-demand service. Currently, a lot of people download torrents purely because they don't have a lifestyle compatible with scheduled TV. Improve the service and they might use that instead.

I have Sky with sports so this soudns pretty good to me, I can watch it all in bed without having to shell out for a multiroom subscription!

seems like a waste of time to me. all the channels you can watch are complete crap, unless you like sport i guess.

thier so called entertainment pack is mostly sport and documentry channels.

and going by the subscription costs, you could get the real thing plus All channels for the same price as the limited selection on there.

so they can shove this one.

here are the packs and prices
http://skyplayer.sky.com/aboutskyplayer/...

Didn't Sony have a deal with Sky to provide content to the PSP? What happened to that?

I've got Sky HD and broadband and can watch the sky stuff on my laptop (including sky sports) for free. Very handy for when working on nights as you can use any internet connection for the stream. Will be a good idea if the price is right.

Well, the SkyPSP thing is out there still I believe but bugger me if you hear anything about it ever.

This sounds pretty good (though it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to pay for the privilege).

Re '"When we launched Xbox 360 four years ago, we called it Xbox 360 for a reason," says UK boss Neil Thompson. "We wanted to deliver an entertainment experience that was 360 degrees, as wide-ranging and broad for consumers as we could possibly create."

If they want to make the 'entertainment experience that was 360 degrees, as wide-ranging' as possible, where's the 360s web-browser (for youtube and iPlayer access)? It could be easily added to the console - a case of MS not wanting to relinquish control over what it's users are viewing perhaps?

No mention of HD? Also, this is potentially a way to get cheaps multiroom isn't it? A 360 in the kids room without the extra tenner you have to pay sky normally?

So, whats happening with the BT vision praetorship M$ announced ages ago?

@ Quickstick4

I reckon Sky probably said they wanted to get involved and as Sky are much bigger than BT in the TV department and hold all the best content it was a no brainer to switch to Sky

"But the real highlight, as far as Johnson's concerned, is being able to watch sporting events with your friends without having to be in the same room."

errr...if I wanna watch a match with mates i'd rather go down the pub. If I'm gonna watch it at home, on my Sky HD may I add, whilst chatting with my mate, then i'll pick up the phone!!

I think, theoretically, this sounds like a good deal. It all hinges on the pricing: it'd be nice if you could just pay, say, 1200 points to watch one match (a Championship match in my case, grumble...) but I fear you'll be tied into monthly subscriptions which, frankly, I can do without (don't watch enough TV, don't like enough sports, and already buy too many DVDs).

All in all tho, I can see this doing really well, and it's a another good string on MS's bow.

Sky tv are daylight robbery, can't see that changing with this.

Why not HD? Probably because Sky haven't finished shafting their own customers over that one just yet.