Sky UK Delays Long Awaited HDR Video Update to Late 2020

Customers of Sky’s (Comcast / Sky Broadband) TV service will be displeased to learn that they may now have to wait until “late” 2020 “at the earliest” before the company finally gets around to adding High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology to Sky Q, which enables the video to contain even more colour and vibrancy.

Sky had previously been promising that HDR would be added to their Sky Q platform at some unspecified point during 2019 (prior to that they said 2018). At present most of their rivals have already added HDR support to 4K (Ultra HD) channels and video streams (e.g. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, BT, Netflix and Virgin Media), while an increasing number of consumers now own supporting TV or other HDR displays (e.g. high end mobiles).

The news that customers, who generally pay quite a lot for Sky’s premium TV service, may now have to wait until late 2020 or possibly even 2021 for HDR to arrive has not gone down well on the operator’s Community Forum.

Statement by Sky’s Community Manager (Kei):

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s unlikely that the UK will be seeing HDR until late next year at the earliest. We’ve pushed it back whilst we work on other priorities.”

Practically speaking the delay to HDR isn’t the end of the world but it does leave Sky, which has long prided itself on delivering some of the best video quality, to sit in a somewhat embarrassing position within an aggressively competitive market. Meanwhile some of Sky’s other European services already have HDR capability.