Whats the main the difference between the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PS3? Ignoring the obvious specification differences, the flame war comments and the general fan boy douchness, one of these consoles doesn't have BBC's iPlayer service and falling short is Microsoft's Xbox 360, iPlayer is probably one of the main demands that a typical UK Xbox 360 console owner want to see appeaing on their Xbox Dashboard and yet were still waiting for BBC's iPlayer service to make an appearance. Whats taking so long?!

How long have we UK Xbox 360 owners been waiting for? To long! BBC's iPlayer has been rolled out onto the PS3 and Nintendo Wii and has proven very popular, so it's no suprise that BBC are keen to strike a deal with Microsoft to get iPlayer on the Xbox 360, yet another entertainment platform for iPlayer to be situated on. Talks with the BBC and Microsoft have been held, but a fundamental problem was found during the talks. Whats that you say? Keep reading to find out more.

Both sides are keen to have iPlayer on the Xbox 360 that's a given, the BBC gets more views on their shows and coverage on the iPlayer service and Microsoft get a new service to provide to it's consumers keeping us happy, but it was discovered that Microsoft wanted to charge Xbox Live Silver membership owners additional costs to use the iPlayer service while Gold members would get it free, but there was possibility of making gold membership holders pay additional fees too, this became the reason why the deal between the BBC and Microsoft fell through.

Microsoft want to use the introduction of the new iPlayer service as opportunity to charge it's Silver Live membership holders additional fees to use the iPlayer service, this however is not possible for one critical reason, every UK household pays a license fee which you guessed it, pays for BBC's services like iPlayer! Therefore the BBC can not agree to this deal as Microsoft would most likely make Silver membership holders play additional fees on top of the license fee which does not play nice with the BBC's public service remit which also means that the BBC can not get any additional fees of the British public as it's covered in the license fee and they get enough from the British public anyway!

The problem both sides face

By Microsoft sticking to their guns with the plan of charging either silver or gold membership holders additional fee's to use iPlayer on the Xbox 360 through Microsoft Points or other means, they violate legislation laid out BBC's public service remit, so the BBC have basically been forced to say no because of the above legislation and damn right they should say no, charging silver or gold membership holders additional fees to use the service is disgusting.

Microsoft declined to comment about the entire situation (Not a surprise, he lied). While the BBC have expressed their disappointment that a deal could not be reached between both sides.

Silver membership holders being shut out?

For me the Xbox Live Silver membership is a bit of farce, OK so Microsoft had to create a membership that is semi free in the sense of you can still access live without paying but the restrictions on the silver membership are heavy, one of them being no multi player online gaming, so if you had silver membership you wouldn't be able to go online in games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 or Halo 3, both of which are heavily emphasized multi player/party games, probably Microsoft's way of punishing you for not parting with the £40 or whatever it is these days for 12 months of gold subscription, but with all these restrictions on silver members don't you think providing iPlayer for free isn't really that much of an ask? I mean Silver membership holders get practically crucified with all the restrictions, so give them a break. After all if a Xbox 360 is in a UK household which pays their TV license fee like everyone else then theirs no question that every UK Xbox 360 should have free access to iPlayer, question is Microsoft, will you give into the BBC or just keep hopeful consumers hanging?

Yes alright, Xbox Live Silver membership is free but Microsoft really need to disengage their capitalist brains and let all Xbox Live holders silver or gold have free access to iPlayer. This is coming from someone who holds a gold live membership and to be honest while I'm in rant mode, isn't that great. Here Microsoft seems to be disregarding the consumer completely and trying to make money on yet another product of the Xbox Live service, which isn't even theirs!

How could iPlayer work on the Xbox 360?

I think having iPlayer on the Xbox 360 would be great and has the potential to integrate well too, rather than having to use a computer or laptop to access iPlayer I could make my Xbox 360 the centre of my entertainment means, I mean I've already got my iPod connected to my 360 so thats my music sorted, my movies, game trailers and any other video sorted through either Xbox Live Video Marketplace for rented films or content like game trailers downloaded onto my Xbox 360 HDD and then played through Zune and of course for any films I have on DVD just played straight through the Xbox 360 itself. To finish it off, it would be great to have some of my favorite BBC TV shows like Doctor Who and Would I lie to you, streamed straight through my Xbox 360 console, the complete set. I often find myself on my laptop regularly so it would be so simple just to be sitting working on a college assignment and then having my Xbox 360 streaming iPlayer content while I work, so I don't have to do some bulls**t window positioning configuration, and no Windows 7's snap feature IS NOT the answer to that problem.

I think Microsoft could also adopt a similar system that they have going with Sky player, while I don't have Sky (I'm Virgin Media) I've seen Sky Player and what you do with it (besides watch the content!) You can create parties and watch movies, football matches (thats soccer for the Americans out there) and other Sky TV content with friends and be able to chat about what your watching through Xbox Live as well as make your avatar do random things, such as laugh at a funny moment (maybe a good idea for comedy shows on iPlayer?) or in the case of Sky Player jump up and down if a goal was scored on a Football match. I think Microsoft and the BBC could get really creative with iPlayer and the Xbox 360 and make it really worth while.

iPlayer alternatives?

So I saw other websites talking about if Microsoft was to approach other broadcasters like Channel 4. Yes Microsoft would love that wouldn't they, here we have Channel 4 with their own on demand service 4oD (Four on demand) and then we have Microsoft. With 4oD not being completely free you could expect Microsoft to jump off the cliff if Channel 4 were prepared to offer a deal with Microsoft, specifically about the part of paying for TV shows. Who knows, maybe Microsoft might strike a deal with another broadcaster and forget iPlayer, I really hope not, but right now it doesn't look like our sorrow for the iPlayer will be ending any time soon.

Yet were still without iPlayer...

Alas. It's a real shame that it's taken this long just to get to an indefinite delay, but really there is no one else to blame but the creators of your beloved console sitting next to you right now, until Microsoft back down and say they will provide iPlayer on Xbox live for all live users regardless of membership status the BBC will not be letting their service appear on the Xbox 360 any time soon. Bah, time to vent some rant aggression on Forza 3, power sliding my beautiful Audi R8 around Silverstone will sooth my iPlayer pains and if not, well I suppose I could open Mozilla Firefox on my laptop and type www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer in the address bar. Yes Microsoft I won't use Internet Explorer just to spite you HA!