Sky Player on Xbox 360 launch suffers technical problems

By Ian Morris on 28 October 2009, 12:30pm

We've been waiting a while, and now Sky Player for the Xbox 360 has finally launched after technical difficulties forced Sky to pull the service yesterday. It's not clear exactly what the problems were, and Sky weren't being specific, just saying they were unexpected. As of today, however, the service is back up and running.

Sky Player offers both subscribers and non-subscribers the option to watch Sky content in a variety of places. Initially launched as a competitor to the BBC's iPlayer, the service has everything from news to sport and movies. It's one of the best commercial services we've seen, easily beating the offerings from Channel 4 and ITV in both quality and programme selection.

It doesn't come cheap though, with a basic service starting at around £15, and the maximum package going up to £32. There's no HD content either, which we think is a missed opportunity, given the 360's HD skills. If you're a Sky subscriber you get the benefit of the service for free, as long as you have a multi-room subscription or Sky Broadband Unlimited.

At £32 for a full subscription, we can't help think it might be better to just subscribe to Sky normally, and get this thrown in for free. But then that's probably what Sky wants...