Tag Archives: sky

Microsoft and Sky will hand out 800 MS Points to those who try out Sky’s Now TV streaming service. To get your points, sign up for the 30-day trial, and the points will be added to your XBL account. Those who stay beyond the trial period, but signing up for one month (£8.99) will be handed another 1600 MS Points. Existing Now TV members are not eligible for the offer. Thanks, CVG.

A recorded version of the Video Games Live concert series is to air tonight on Sky Arts and its HD equivalent in the UK tonight.

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Sky’s announced it’s to air tonight’s launch party of 3DS in London tomorrow on Sky TV.

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Sky Sports has been warned by UK watchdog Ofcom over complaints that it showed “blatant” and irrelevant” EA Sports logos during a Premer League game last September.

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Sky and Microsoft announced today full Kinect integration with the Sky Player on Xbox 360.

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According to a Microsoft fact sheet, ten more countries will be getting the Xbox Live Video Marketplace this fall.

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Xbox Europe boss Neil Thompson isn’t pleased with Sky’s launch on 360 in the UK. No sir. He’s had his fucking mind blown, man. He can’t handle it. He’s freakin’. Climbing the walls. Riding the wave. Shooting the goose. Which probably explains why the whole thing fell over the first day thanks to “demand“.

“We were blown away – literally – by the response we had, and we took some flak, probably fairly,” Thompson said in this GI interview.

“We didn’t scale to quite the scale we should have, and I take that criticism on board and we’ve learned from it. But now it’s up and running, people are loving it, the subscription rates, the download rates for the application and so on are just blowing my mind away, they’re blowing the people at Sky’s minds away.”

Whatever Neil’s having, we’re up for the double-drop, dude.

“It’s proving incredible popular… It is a phenomenal success at this point,” he added.

Hit this for details of packages, etc.

Microsoft has announced that Sky Player for Xbox 360 is now available to “100 percent” of the user base in UK and Ireland.

Here’s the statement:

As you may know we have been implementing a gradual rollout of the Sky Player on Xbox 360 service since our initial launch, and as of today, 100 percent of the Xbox base can access Sky Player, and tens of thousands of new users are accessing the service daily.

The quality of the service remains of the utmost importance to both Sky and Xbox, and as such we will run further testing over the weekend and continue to monitor the service closely.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Microsoft just confirmed that its 360 Sky player is being relaunched gradually in the UK, with “tens of thousands” of users being given access to the TV on-demand feature “each day”.

Here’s the full statement, dropped by Aceybongos on the Xbox.com forums:

As you may know, we have been experiencing some technical issues with the Sky Player on Xbox 360 since launch last Tuesday morning. It is important to both Sky and Xbox that we give customers as much information as possible about why the service is not working and when we expect this to be resolved.

As we said last week, some customers have been unable to experience full use of the service due to the initial demand for the service at launch, when so many people tried to access the service all at the same time.

Right now we are implementing a revised rollout which will see Sky Player become available to all Xbox 360 customers gradually. While unfortunately some customers do not have access to the service, tens of thousands more will be added each day, until the service is available to all.

We are taking this phased approach to ensure that consumers experience a high-quality experience. The Sky team has contacted the affected Sky Player TV subscribers on Xbox directly with further updates.

For further information consumers can go to xbox.skyplayer.com/help or www.xbox.com/support.

“Demand” forced Microsoft to withdraw the Sky player on its launch day last month.

Sky and Microsoft have put the fact they had to pull 360′s Sky service the same day it launched because too many people wanted it. Good planning, there.

“Sky Player on Xbox 360 launched on Tuesday 27th October and was met with phenomenal demand, with many tens of thousands of customers attempting to sign up within the first hour of launch,” the companies said in a statement.

“Unfortunately due to the unprecedented levels of simultaneous demand, we did not have the capacity to satisfy all service requests and therefore temporarily suspended all access to the service.

“Today, the rollout will be implemented in phases to ensure that consumers experience both a smooth sign-up process and high-quality experience. We apologise to all customers that have not been able to experience Sky Player on Xbox 360, we assure them that this is being rectified and we thank them for their patience.”

Thanks, EG.

Microsoft’s released its UK 360 Sky package today – the basic banana’s going to cost £15 per month, and you’ll need a Gold Live sub to see it.

The basic package gives you the “Base Entertainment Pack,” which includes GOLD, Sky Real Lives, Sky Arts 1, MTV One, Sky Sports News, British Eurosport, ESPN Classic, Sky News, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, History, Eden, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Nick Jr.

You can add Sky Sports, Sky Movies and other channels for an additional fee.

If you’ve got a Sky sub already, you won’t have to pay twice – you’ll be able to see the channels you already pay for, on-demand, through your 360.

There’s a movie of Sky working on 360 after the break. Looks pretty hot, to be fair.

Just watch it. Brits will be using this next Tuesday.

Thanks, CaZ.

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According to the latest tweet from Graeme Boyd, Europe’s Xbox Community Manager, on October 27 you’ll be able to watch TV from Sky on your Xbox 360.

Looks like the channel line-up and pricing will be revealed at launch.

Here’s the tweet for proof:

October 27 – that’s the date when you’ll be able to watch TV from Sky on your Xbox 360. Channel line-up and pricing to come at launch

Good thing, that.

Bright Side of News is rumouring that Nintendo is planning on using Nvidia’s Tegra tech to power the next DS – which is apparently due in late 2010.

As Engadget points out, “The primary source on this comes from Bright Side of News (which doesn’t have a big track record to judge by), who claims the debut is planned for late 2010 and conjectures that the device could either use the upcoming 40nm 2nd-gen Tegra tech, or the existing, tried-and-true 65nm chip.”

You be the judge. Hit the links.

Digital Spy’s claiming that the last edition of Sky’s magazine’s revealed an October release date for 360′s Sky functionality in the UK.

The story’s based on the fact a URL published by the mag as a promo for the service contains the letters “oct”. It should be noted that this comes from the publication’s October issue.

No one’s contacted Microsoft about this. Maybe we will. Thanks, Blerk.

Update: The mag itself apparently says the update’s being released in October. Go nuts.

Update 2: We’ve had this confirmed.

As expected, Microsoft’s announced a deal with Sky that will see the broadcaster’s channels appear on the console this autumn.

The move was confirmed at a London event this week.

This means 360 owners will be able to use Sky services without the need for a satellite dish or an existing Sky sub.

No details on pricing or line-up have been revealed as yet, although the two companies have said the service will be similar to Sky Player, the desktop Sky option currently available on PCs and Macs.

Wwe couldn’t go to the London event, but the BBC has a full report.

Update: There’s shots of it on NeoGAF. Thanks, Blerk.

Rapid TV News is rumouring that the UK 360 TV deal being announced in London tomorrow is a hook-up with Sky.

The piece says Microsoft may be about to deliver Sky services through its console.

in July 2007, BSkyB COO Mike Darcey confirmed that the broadcaster was talking to Microsoft about the possibility of using Microsoft’s Windows Media as another route to users.

We’ll know for sure tomorrow. Thanks, Edge and Blerk.

This Forbes piece, authored by journalist Chris Morris, argues that Google may be considering becoming a games publisher.

In a nuthshell:

While most videogame makers rely heavily on brick and mortar retailers to drive sales (something Google isn’t currently set up for), digital delivery is a rapidly growing industry. Valve Software has seen success with its Steam delivery system. And Electronic Arts (nasdaq: ERTS – news – people ) has been pushing its online store more heavily in recent months. The money’s not as good, but the growth potential is significant. And Google has the bankroll to wait for the growth to come.

“Given all the employees they have and the company’s policy of encouraging side projects, I would be very surprised if there wasn’t somebody in Google who’s not approaching [gaming] as an opportunity,” [Colin] Sebastian says. “Of course, there are a number of hurdles that have to be cleared before it reaches the outside world.”

More guesswork through the link.

Go!View, Sony and Sky’s video-on-demand service for the PSP, has gone live in the UK and Ireland today.

The service allows people to transfer content from their PCs to their PSPs with monthly rental packages priced at £5 and £10.

“We are working with our content providers to secure a quality range of programming and ensure that PSP owners are getting the best possible service on-the-go and on-demand,” commented Alison Turner, general manager, Go! View Entertainment UK.

By Mike Bowden