Launched to a bit of fanfare, and some controversy, back in November 2009 Sky have now announced that the Sky Player for Media Centre is closing down. Sky Player through your Xbox and other means remains, it’s just the 7MC add-in that’s being removed.
As a non-Sky subscriber I found the service to be too expensive so never tried it, but it’s still disappointing that Sky are closing it down. Hopefully the icon will be removed from the TV strip by Microsoft without too much delay.
From Sky’s website:
From July 6th 2011 Sky Player will no longer be available on Windows Media Center. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope you continue to enjoy Sky Player on your computer, Xbox 360 or Fetch set top box.
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I know a few people that are using it and its a shame the service is being shutdown.
It’s a real shame that W7 Media Center for the UK never got “Internet TV” – one of the things that MS was all to keen to show off for US users.
Imagine all of the UK (FTA!) channel streams (live and on-demand) available in the Media Center guide – that would be great!
At least clever individuals have brought us third party add ins.
It makes me wonder why the Sky Player feature is being withdrawn – has it been costing $ky to have that tile on the Media Center menu?