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*** Update 23:30 3rd November 2009 ***

It seems like the roll-out is now underway – see hands-on pictures of Sky Player in action on the Xbox 360.

Sky Player Navigation

*** ENDs ***

At first glance, this seems like a great idea – watch Sky TV at home via your Xbox 360. And before delving into the detail it looks that, if not already a SkyTV subscriber, you’d have a great way to get Sky TV onto your big telly in your house/flat/barge. And as the service is supplied (in standard def only, mind you) over your broadband connection, there’s no need for a dustbin lid and associated scaffolding on the side of your house, and the subscription fees seem pretty reasonable. But if, like many of us, you’re already a Sky TV subscriber, the proposition is less compelling, but still potentially useful.

However, delving a little deeper, it’s altogether less straightforward.

Eagerly turning on my Xbox 360 early on the afternoon of launch day, and without doing any research whatsoever into how this Xbox/Sky marriage was supposed to work, I naively expected an Xbox software update instantly to provide me with access to the likes of Dave, Men and Motors and Ocean Finance TV (channel 888, don’t you know). Of course, I was disappointed.

The Xbox.com website was my next stop where I found this handy page which takes you through a wizard, asking various questions such as:

• are already a Sky subscriber?
• are you Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber?
• do you subscribe to Sky Broadband Unlimited or Sky Multiroom?

As a minimum, you need a broadband connection (at least 2Mb) an Xbox LIVE Gold membership to use the service in any form. If you’re already a Sky subscriber, you must also have Sky Broadband Unlimited or Sky Multiroom (at £5 per month) if you want to watch live Sky TV on your Xbox. As it happens, I don’t, but as a Sky subscriber with Xbox LIVE Gold, I am still able to watch Sky’s On Demand TV services. If you’re not a Sky subscriber, you can subscribe for the Sky Player service only (but you’ll still need Xbox LIVE Gold).

So, whilst mildly disappointed that I’m only able to watch on-demand TV, but at the same time slightly smug that most of the telly I watch is via Sky+ and hence already on demand, I head over to the Sky website to sign-in and try to activate my Xbox Sky Player from there.

Signing in to the Sky.com website and taking a little more care than usual reading the terms and conditions for the Sky Player service, I’m ultimately presented with a Sky Player mini site trying to sell me more stuff which I decline. Each device upon which you choose to watch Sky TV (which can be a PC or an Xbox 360) must be registered here, up to a maximum of four devices. However, it’s not immediately clear how to enable it on your Xbox.

Some further hunting on the SkyPlayer Xbox 360 portal suggests it should be as simple as going to the Video Marketplace on the Xbox and signing in from there, but upon trying that on my Xbox, there’s nothing that mentions SkyPlayer there. Predictably, there was nothing on the Sky online help, but the Xbox.com forums reported what I’d feared: it’s already broken and has been taken offline! The SkyPlayer website has this to say:

Hi All,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are currently experiencing some technical issues with our much-anticipated launch of Sky Player on Xbox 360.

Please rest assured we are working extremely hard behind the scenes to rectify this as soon as possible, and we look forward to bringing TV from Sky to your Xbox 360 console very soon.

Thanks for your continuing patience,

The Sky Player Team

I’ll report back when I know more…