SKY TV on the XBOX 360

The Sky Player on the Xbox 360

Positive Point

  • The Interface is very nicely done.

Negative Points:

  • The quality of the streaming is really bad (it’s also bad on the PC player)
  • The selection of channels in the online subscription can only be described as shite – If you think of Sky TV, most people would probably want the big programmes that get stuck on Sky One – they are nowhere near this bizarre selection of bottom rung channels.
  • Even if you do find something on there worth watching – you might get a notice saying that the programme isn’t being broadcast online – you’re told this in a VHS rental video  ‘upcoming features’ style – it looks so nasty and amateurish.
  • The initial offer when it became available via the Xbox was for 3 months for the price of two – this seemed like a cheap way to lock people in to 3 months of the service before they could escape.
  • The Zune Marketplace can quite happily stream films at 1080p with Dolby Digital sound – this makes the Sky service even more of a joke as it shows it up, raises it’s leg and pisses all over it.

So, reading between the lines there, it’s safe to say I didn’t like it. It’d need a big channel like Sky One, streamed in HD to the quality of the Zune Marketplace to make it worth considering. At the moment it’s just awful.