BBC iPlayer Broadband Video Streaming TV Service Arrives on UK XBox Live

The BBC’s free web-based broadband video streaming TV service, iPlayer, has today become available to owners of Microsoft’s popular XBox 360 games console via the online XBox LIVE service.

Sony’s rival PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Nintendo’s Wii consoles have both had iPlayer for awhile, which left Microsoft to play catch-up. The service will be free to both Silver and Gold members, while owners of the Kinect motion-controller will benefit from some unique navigational improvements.

Daniel Danker, BBC General Manager for Programmes and On-Demand, said:

“Xbox is hugely successful in the UK. Given the BBC’s goal to reach its entire audience, I’m particularly excited that the BBC will be bringing iPlayer to all Xbox users at no extra cost as part of Xbox LIVE’s free membership.

As we continue our work to make BBC iPlayer as simple as possible, we’re also excited to experiment with natural user interfaces made possible with Kinect, including voice and gesture control. We believe it’s early days for these experiences, but see a great future working with partners such as Microsoft on innovations like these.”

It’s understood that Microsoft is releasing iPlayer as part of a phased deployment, thus some XBox owners might not see it surface under the ‘App Marketplace‘ for another two or three days. The BBC’s iPlayer service is now available on a staggering 450 different platforms (devices) and Sky’s subscribers look to be next in line before the end of 2012.