iPlayer, schmiPlayer - Sky Player!
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Sky has announced plans for an online TV subscription service on its Sky Player platform - better yet, potential punters won’t have to take out a Sky TV contract to use it.
The Sky Player was set up in 2006 and currently caters to Sky TV customers only, offering a selection of on demand content from Sky branded channels. The broadcaster also offers third party content from ESPN Classic, History Channel, National Geographic and Baby First, and recently added access to the BBC iPlayer to its online services. The new subscription based package will offer a similar service to the BBC catch up service, and comes with its own electronic programme guide. There are predicted to be a number of online subscription packages when the service launches in the next few months, but prices have yet to be announced.
The planned subscription service sees Sky aiming to appeal to the YouTube generation of viewers, and to emulate the success of the BBC iPlayer.
Mike Darcey, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer said “We want to make it easy for customers to enjoy great TV on their terms. Sky Player already gives more flexibility to Sky TV customers and soon we will offer some of the most popular pay TV channels through a standalone subscription to a secure online platform.”
Before signing up to an online subscription service it is worth checking the download limit set by your ISP. Broadband TV uses an exceptional amount of data, and unless you have a very high or unlimited data usage allowance you may end up paying through the roof for the programmes you watch.
