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Xbox and Sky have announced a partnership that will bring Sky television content to the Microsoft games console.

When it launches this autumn the new Sky Player service will allow Xbox 360 owners to stream live and on-demand video to their TVs. The service will be free to existing Sky customers, with non-customers offered a variety of packages and a pay-per-view service, though details on pricing are not yet available.

In terms of resolution, the video on offer will be “comparable to standard definition content”, according to an Xbox spokesman at a demonstration of the service, who also said that “extensive testing” was underway to ensure UK broadband connections would be up to the task of streaming that content.

Sky Player on Xbox
In our first look at the service on Xbox, the Sky Player Home, located in the Video Marketplace, showed off its wares via an interface designed in the familiar Xbox 360 menu style, content initially split by categories: Movies, Sport, Entertainment, Style and Culture, News, Documentaries and Kids. Other sections of the Player included TV Guide, Live TV, Watch Football, Sky News Now and Sky Sports Now.

The all-important sports offering was football-focused, the demonstrator highlighting a Xbox application that will let viewers watch live football with up to seven friends, in avatar form, in a kind of virtual living room. A game-like emote wheel lets avatars gesture appropriately and voice chat will also be enabled.

Though the Sky Player is coming to the Xbox 360 first and Sky has no official plans to take their content to other games consoles, a Sky spokesman confirmed that Sky is “agnostic” about console exclusivity.

The deal between Xbox and Sky is a first for Microsoft, which in the UK has previously brought video downloads to Xbox Live’s marketplace through agreements with specific movie studios.

This news comes hot on the heels of the announcement of a Zune Video service for Xbox Live. Though the services are separate, they both form part of Xbox’s continued efforts to turn the game console into a multimedia entertainment hub.