Tag: Sky
Sky Songs launches today
Spotify's monopoly on music streaming may be coming to an end as Sky today launched its Sky Songs website.
Sky launches music service
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.
Sky TV on an Xbox 360 – not long to wait now
The service will deliver up to 20 live channels and a host of video on demand footage like movies and music events. Initial demos back in May when the scheme was unveiled also displayed how Windows Live Messaging facilities could be added to the video so that user could talk about the games/movies/events they are watching with friends as they can do now when online gaming.
The Wand – the remote control for the Harry Potter generation
Shazam! One flick of your wrist and you can change channels. It can even cope with the Sky+ menu system
Sky News HD from next year
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, have 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 are 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 launch Sky Player for Xbox
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 and check news and 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)
UK Satellite TV Comparison Guide: Sky versus Freesat
Two services that require you to stick a satellite dish to the side of your house.
One has been around for two decades, the other has just celebrated its first birthday.
Both will demand an upfront payment: one will continue to drain money from your bank account each month.
So which is best? Read our comparison guide to see if you should go with coming-of-age Sky or new-kid-on-the-block Freesat.
Read on to find out…
Hulu hitting the UK in September?
The Hulu that they do so well over in the States could be coming to the UK in a deal that would bring 3,000 hours of US TV to our virtual shores. The free to view VoD service is looking to buddy up with the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in providing an internet platform where all their content can be viewed together in exactly the same way the Kangaroo couldn’t.
But there is a but – two, actually, if I write it like that. There’s issues with how Channel 4 and ITV wish to hold their advertising inventory around the player for their content and, with the Competition Commission lurking round the corner, there’s a horribly familiar feeling in the air that yet another good thing for the consumer could hit the bricks.
I was just about to say that Sky is bound to have a whinge about it, just as they did with Kangaroo, but maybe not so this time. Hulu is backed by News Corp, and News Corp owns Sky. So, maybe this thing does have legs after all.
Still a hell of a lot of teasing out of agreements to do in terms of rules and regs as well as the advertising issue, doubtless, but, fingers crossed, we might actually get what we want this time. Just a shame we needed an American company to come in and sort it out for us.
(via Telegraph)
Sky launching 'green button' on-demand ads
In an attempt to charge their advertisers more for their content without pissing off viewers too much, Sky is launching a ‘green button’ service for advertising. Much like the red button service that lets people find out more information about a program, the green button will enable ‘extended advertising content’.
Advertisers will be able to encourage users to press the green button during a trail, and it’ll take them to a location where they’ll be able to find out more, or watch an extended version of the advert. It could even feature entirely new footage.
Warner Brothers will be trialling the new technology for the upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and a campaign for T-Mobile will also be live from launch.
But why would anyone ever use it? Except in a few cases, like the Superbowl, most people regard adverts as a necessary evil to get the content they want. Unless companies used this service very imaginatively, then I can’t see viewers really getting too excited about this one.
(via Brandrepublic)
Sky HD boxes self-destructing, getting replaced
Sky HD customer? Have you heard from your provider lately? The company is allegedly recalling thousands of digiboxes due to a design fault that will gradually corrupt hard drives, ultimately causing disk failure.
The problem affects Pace-made units (Thomson, Samsung and Amstrad models are fine) and subscribers are getting three months of free HD subscription to compensate them for any data stored on their boxes.
Have you had your box replaced? Get in touch in the comments below and let us know what happened.
(via TrustedReviews)
