It has been officially announced that the BBC iPlayer will finally be available to Sky customers after the two broadcasting operations agreed a deal. This will see the UKs largest video on demand service arrive on the satellite TV service. The iPlayer is already available on a number of platforms such as the likes of Virgin Media according to a report on TechRadar.

A launch date of later this year will be welcome news for around five million Sky subscribers. The service will come via the Anytime+ feature that allows users to download content to their Sky box via the internet. This is where there is more good news for customers, as previously only those subscribing to Sky Broadband could get Anytime+.

Now as part of the deal with the BBC Anytime+ will now be available to anyone who connects their Sky box to their internet connection regardless of what ISP they use. The press release about the news said that this move was “an important development in helping to bring BBC iPlayer to around 5 million new homes in 2012 – at no extra charge“.

The BBC iPlayer has become a global success but was a major service gap on the Sky TV service. Sky’s Jeremy Darroch said the Anytime+ service “will go from strength to strength in 2012”, and added that subscribers can now enjoy BBC content “whenever they want”. It was also confirmed that iTV content was also coming to Sky as well.

Are you pleased to hear that the BBC iPlayer is coming to Sky?

There will now be a new range of classic movies provided for customers via the Sky Anytime+ service. Anytime+ is an on demand feature that users can pick content such as movies or TV shows, which are then downloaded via the internet and streamed to the Sky set top box. Customers of the satellite broadcaster do also have to use the company’s broadband service

According to What Hi-Fi the new service will begin rolling out to Sky boxes over the next few days as the service is already live. The all new Sky Movies Box Office selection will have films available as they become available on DVD, and also have a back catalogue of classic movies.

All the new releases on the service will be highlighted on the Anytime+ menu as “Now on DVD”, and will also appear on the standard Sky Box Office channels. These movies will cost standard Sky customers £3.99 or £3.49 if you subscribe to the movie channels. If you have access to Anytime+ the cost is £2.99 or £2.49 if you have the movie channels as well.

Customers who use Sky Go on PC, Mac and Xbox the movies will be available for similar prices. Have you got the new service yet on your Sky box?