The "crown jewels" of sporting events are to come under review by the Government, which may see media giants Sky forced to relinquish their exclusive rights to the Ashes cricket test series. The review could see the Ashes returning to channels that do not require a subscription fee.

Sky currently has an exclusivity deal on the Ashes worth £250 million, but former FA chief David Davies, who is heading the review, believes that sporting events with such "national resonance" should be widely available beyond subscription services.

Theories are already circulating that the Government move is a bargaining chip following deteriorating relations with Sky owners News Corporation. News Corporation also own the Sun newspaper, which recently voiced its change of allegiance from Labour to Conservative in the run up to the next general election.

The company's billionaire owner Rupert Murdoch has said to have had received a personal call from Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week to address the flailing relations.

Though the prospect of watching Sky TV through your Xbox 360 is a very exciting one indeed, the recent launch of Sky Player on the games console has been one fraught with problems.

As such, the media giant is looking to revise the service, making it available to customers gradually as they learn to manage the enormous demand which crippled the Sky Player upon it's initial launch.

The new revised model will see the service available first to "ten of thousands" of customers a day, with that rough figure gradually rising as problems and bugs are addressed.

Sky have said "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."

The long-planned partnership between Sky and Xbox 360 goes live today. Xbox Live Gold members can pick up 24 Sky digital channels for a monthly subscription charge of £15. Alternatively, those who already have a Sky subscription can get the service for free, providing they have an Xbox Live Gold membership.

"Today our customers enjoy film, music, videos and games on Xbox 360 and TV is another significant step forward in our entertainment vision," Microsoft UK's Neil Thompson stated.

"And now Xbox owners will have the variety and volume of entertainment along with unique services such as the avatar community which allow you to share, celebrate and chat - it is clear that Xbox 360 is taking entertainment beyond the living room with unique social interactive entertainment experiences."

As well as being able to watch TV with pals and interact through your Xbox Live avatars, premium upgrade bundles such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies will be available at additional cost.

It's a nice new feature for Xbox Live Gold subscribers, but bear in mind that an internet connection of 6-8 mbps will be necessary to avoid the buffering blues.

New figures released by Sky claim to show Sky+HD boxes sold at a rate of one every 30 seconds between the months of July and September.

With the public preferring a cosy night in during these wallet-whacking times, Sky has seen subscriptions to its HD service rise to 1.6 million. That's on top of the 6 million who already own a standard Sky+ box.

The number of HD channels is also set to rise to 35, with the introduction of Sky Movies Indie HD on Monday.

Good news for Sky users. A year and half after it first announced its intention to launch a digital music service, Sky Songs will go live next week. It appears that the delay has largely been due to the fact that it has taken a long time to sign up all the major music labels.

The best bit is that Sky subscribers get a free album if they sign up for a trial. It is also a fairly competitive service with individual tracks selling for 65p each - which is cheaper than many of Sky's rivals.

Alternatively for £6.49 or £7.99 per month Sky offers unlimited streaming plus 10 or 15 free MP3 downloads depending on which price plan the user chooses.

The only real drawback is that with four million tunes Sky's services is a lot smaller than many of its rivals.

Sky will be launching a HD version of their popular news channel, to be broadcast alongside the current, standard definition, version from Spring 2010.

To coincide with the launch Sky will be updating their studios and production facilities, so expect an even more Starship Enterprise looking set with an ever increasing, and seemingly unneeded, array of computer graphics.

Sky HD currently has over a million subscribers and has been aggressively promoting the service in recent months. They are currently offering the box to new customers for a mere £49, free set-up, plus £50 worth of Tesco's vouchers. It costs an additional £9.75 a month to subscribe to the HD channels, but it's still pretty good value. Sky may even drop this additional subscription price in the future, as they did with the Sky+ fee.

The announcement will also put a bit of pressure on Freesat, who currently only offer two HD channels - BBC and ITV. Sky in comparison, has over 30.

In America, the big networks, like Sky's cousin Fox, already broadcast their news in HD, sort of. Everything in the studio is HD but films taken outside, which could be argued is the news, is not always filmed in HD. Sky is planning to make all of their coverage, wherever possible, HD.

Sounds like exciting stuff, although the thought of Eamonn Holmes in HD at 7.30 in the morning is enough to put me off my Weetabix.

(via Broadcast Now)

Microsoft and BSkyB have formally unveiled Sky Player for Xbox 360, Sky's TV service for the Microsoft console.

The service launches later this year and will offer a range of linear TV channels, as well as a library of on-demand content. A number of subscription packages will be available, as will the opportunity to access programming on a pay-per-view basis.

Xbox owners who already have a Sky TV subscription will be able to access Sky Player's on-demand services through their console, in addition to their PC or Mac.

The service will also allow users to IM each other, check news, access fixtures and any other on-demand information.

BSkyB wouldn't say whether the deal with Microsoft was exclusive, although sources said that this is unlikely.

Similar deals could eventually be struck with Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii and Project Canvas, the appallingly named catch-up TV service in development by the BBC, ITV and BT.

(Via TechCrunch)