The BBC's popular UK internet video streaming and catch-up TV service ( iPlayer ) will finally arrive on Microsoft's XBox 360 video game console during "early" 2012 and as part of a major broadband media focused platform upgrade that includes new film, tv and video content.

The upgrades will begin today when Microsoft launches the first in a series of major revamps for the console that will change its User Interface (UI) to a Windows 8 style and add masses of new media (LOVEFiLM, 4oD, Demand 5, YouTube etc.) and social networking (Twitter, Facebook, Kinect video calls etc.) services.


Sadly there are a few caveats with much of the new content being hidden behind Microsoft's paid Gold Membership scheme, although everybody will still be able to take advantage of the various other changes to the UI and navigation system. We note that ITV content also seems to be missing.

It goes without saying that the new media focused update will only be of real benefit to those of you whom already have a good broadband connection with stable speeds of at least 2Mbps and ideally more (this tends to be the minimum requirement for passable video quality).

Broadband ISPs will also want to keep their eye on this as the move could result in some customers making significantly larger bandwidth demands from their provider. Customers will also need to be mindful of how much they use, especially if you have a usage capped package.