Microsoft: iPlayer is not a priority for Xbox 360

Microsoft's senior regional director for Northern Europe, Neil Thompson, has said bringing BBC iPlayer to Xbox 360 is not a top priority.

In an interview at E3 last week with OXM, Thompson said that despite the US debut of ESPN on Xbox 360, the iPlayer will not be following in the UK.

"iPlayer is available on a lot of platforms, people connect to that content in a lot of ways today and it's like 'where would we add value to that particular property at this point?' and we think we can probably add value in other areas at the moment," he said.

Using Sky as an example, Thompson said that Microsoft would rather bring new experiences to users rather than experiences that exist elsewhere.

"What we did with Sky was innovative in the Xbox Live world throughout the globe, with the Fanzone areas that we were doing and what Avatars could do in the Fanzone areas - all of that was new and innovative and came to the UK first so I think we are innovating through that platform through that sort of service and that's where we're going to continue to innovate," he said.

A source close to the BBC said last year that  Microsoft didn't want iPlayer on Xbox 360 unless it was made available as a Gold service, whereas the BBC wants iPlayer to remain free for everyone.

iPlayer is currently available on Wii and PS3.