You may not have noticed, but Sky launched its online on-demand TV service earlier this month. The package gives some Sky subscribers and anyone who wants to pay for the privilege, access to a number of Sky digital TV channels, including Sky Sports. Just like the BBC iPlayer or Channel 4’s 4OD service, you can stream programmes you want to watch, or download them for later viewing.

The lack of an advertising blitz for the Sky Player is actually a tiny bit baffling, because after trying it out for the past few days, it is a superb offering that deserves a lot more buzz. Maybe Sky is too busy trying to flog HDTV set-top boxes or maybe it didn’t want a load of complaints that the service that doesn’t work (for the last time everyone, online TV does work. It’s the speed of your broadband that is rubbish. Please blame your internet service providers).

So maybe Sky – which is part-owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times – is waiting for the technology to catch up before giving Sky Player a glitzier showcase. In the meantime, it may remain something of an undiscovered gem, although one that probably has to come down in price considerably before the masses choose to use it.

Currently, Sky Player lets people in the UK and Ireland subscribe to packages of TV channels to watch live on their PC and Mac, without signing up to the company's satellite TV service. For as little as £7.50 a month, subscribers can get a “Base Entertainment Pack”, consisting of eight digital TV channels including Sky News, MTV One and National Geographic. It gets considerably more expensive if you want to add a couple of Sky Sports Channels (£22), or if you want the whole lot (£30). These prices are introductory offers until the end of January, when they will go up further. Ouch.

£30 for online subscription instinctively feels like quite a lot of money. Unless it's not an option in your area, why not just get Sky TV or Virgin’s digital TV service installed? Until more channels are offered as part of Sky’s online service, it might feel like a bit of an unnecessary luxury. Not something you need, if you’ve been reading credit crunch stories that are making you wary about splashing out lately.

In reality, Sky Player is more likely to be treated as something of a bonus for people who already subscribe to Sky. If you have Sky Multiroom or are a Sky Broadband Max subscriber (you’ll know if you are), then you can get Sky Player free. The channels you get depend on what is already being piped into your TV. So if you can already watch Sky Sports at home, you can also watch it on your computer. Think of it: two Champions League matches to watch simultaneously. This time not by standing around a Walkabout Pub, or ahem, getting a dodgy (cough, illegal) live feed from some random Chinese broadcaster.

Where Sky Player really excels is in the content it provides. For example, they have a wider array of movies to download than other online TV services. Over the weekend, I watched Superbad on my PC without having to pay. That’s because it is currently being shown on Sky Movies, something I am already signed up to. The download was high quality, and yes, the film was very funny. I also watched a live American Football match on my laptop on Sunday night, while watching a different game on my TV. I could not tell the difference between the broadcast quality beaming from the two screens.

However, this was because I was watching the live game on Sky Player’s “high quality” viewing option, which needs at least a 1.8 Mbps broadband speed. I’m one of those lucky Londoners with a very good connection. If you’re out in the sticks, the chances are that your broadband won’t be able to handle this. Ofcom recently placed the average broadband speed in the country at 5.9Mbps, but another recent test suggested that the true figure was closer to 3Mbps.

You can also watch Sky Player on medium quality (requiring 1.1 Mbps) and low quality (requiring 600 Kbps). But it’s probably not worth coughing up the cash if you are unable to watch Sky Player on the high quality setting. A good rule of thumb is that if you can watch BBC iPlayer without it skipping too much, you should also be fine with Sky Player.

And one last thing. Just like 4OD and others, some of the content is free, but some of it you have to pay for. So an episode of Bones will set you back £2, but you get to keep the download forever. This is quite a lot cheaper than iTunes and in time there could be a lot more programmes and movies available to download on Sky Player than with Apple's site. Finally, a bargain.

All in all, Sky Player is a significant step forward for online TV. But some words of advice: make it cheaper, slap it on some billboards, and the public might jump on board.

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