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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Sandbox   >   Pay-TV from Sky comes to Xbox 360

Pay-TV from Sky comes to Xbox 360

By on May 29, 2009

More evidence that convergence is finally happening and the console is fighting for its role as the home entertainment hub

Sky logo

The Financial Times reports today that from the autumn, Xbox 360 owners will be able to see Sky programming on demand through their console without being Sky customers.

“Viewers will be able to view Sky’s films, culture shows, documentaries and children’s programming “on-demand” over the internet, while its sport and news channels will be streamed live”

Pricing is not yet clear, but is likely to match the Sky Player model (already available on PC and Mac) which is free to existing Sky subscribers but costs new users £15 to £38 a month.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is not that Microsoft has secured satellite TV content for the Xbox – after all, they’ve been banging on about convergence since the inception of the console; it’s that Sky is allowing is prime asset in its own battle to be the home entertainment hub – its content, including Premier League football rights – to be sublicensed to Microsoft.

So does this mean that BSkyB is throwing in the towel and concluding that the set-top box cannot be the all-purpose home entertainment hub?

If so, that doesn’t sound good for its long term future.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com