British firm BSkyB has joined forces with Microsoft to give Xbox 360 owners the chance to watch live television and on demand content on their consoles.
The two firms launched the new Sky Player service on Xbox 360 today but in a u-turn the service has been switched off for new users until tomorrow due to an "unforeseen technical issue". According to many who were able to use the service today there has been a mixed reaction to the service. Some were able to use it perfectly whilst others struggled getting content streaming correctly. Microsoft issued the following statement:
"The Sky Player on Xbox 360 service did successfully launch early this morning, it has subsequently been suspended due to an unforeseen technical issue. With so much excitement and interest in the service, we"d much prefer to ensure that our customers enjoy the highest possible quality of service. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to our customers who have attempted to access the service today. Sky Player engineers are hard at work to resolve the problem - we expect to have the full service available tomorrow."
Clearly both companies did not anticipate the high demand for the service and may not have conducted enough large-scale user testing beforehand.
Sky Player for Xbox 360 gives subscribers access to live pay TV channels - including Sky Sports and video on demand content. Neowin exclusively revealed the full channel list and cost earlier this month. Microsoft also plans to launch the Sky Player service in Media Center "soon". We managed to get an early sneak peek at this service at the Windows 7 UK launch last week. Existing Sky TV customers will be able to purchase an online Sky Player multiroom subscription for £9.75 per month. Customers with Sky Multiroom or Sky Broadband Unlimited will be able to access live channels for no extra charge. Non-Sky TV customers will require a monthly subscription that starts at £15 per month to the Base Entertainment Pack. In addition to the live channels, customers will also have access to on-demand programmes from channels they subscribe to.
Fingers crossed that the service is up and running correctly tomorrow. Meanwhile here"s a hands on video from one of our Neowin readers, Chris Brown: