Sky UK Coy on Delay and Future Release of Sky Go for Apple TV
Last October Sky (Sky TV, Sky Broadband) announced that customers in the UK would be able to access their popular Sky Go video streaming app on Apple TV devices during the “first half of 2022“, yet it’s now July and the operator has declined to say when it will launch or why they’ve delayed it.
One possible reason for the delay might be because Sky only began sending out invites for the Sky Go on Apple TV beta app in late April, with quite a few of them joining the trial through to late May 2022. The beta app itself is designed to only work on Apple TV 4K (1st and 2nd generation) and HD devices, but some customers were only told later that they also needed a Sky Q Multiscreen or Sky Glass Whole Home subscription to access it.
As usual with beta software, the trial uncovered various glitches with app navigation, login problems, video quality and the lack of Watchlist integration, most of which should hopefully have been resolved by now. But broadly speaking, feedback on the beta app itself has been positive.
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A spokesperson for Sky declined to tell ISPreview.co.uk why the app had been delayed or when it might now launch, but they did at least confirm that “we’re still planning on adding Sky Go to Apple TV, we’ll release more information in due course.” Meanwhile, those taking part in the beta trial have been told to expect the final release this “summer“, although officially their PR folk are clearly unwilling to endorse that.
According to ISPreview.co.uk’s own sources, one of the key stumbling blocks may reflect issues with getting the content in Sky Go to sync-up with the Apple TV menu, but the launch is still expected to be soon. Just for the record, “astronomical summer” in the Northern Hemisphere ends on 23rd September this year, while “meteorological summer” (seasonal) usually ends on 31st August every year. Fun.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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If I was Sky, personally I wouldn’t bother developing an app for ATV+ if they’re going to cap the quality at 720p30 like they do on most if not all other devices. Hardly a worthwhile thing to show off.
I’ve just joined the beta – I didn’t realise it was a thing. I’ve been waiting *years* for this. The app seems to work great, it streams in decent quality, can’t tell exactly what the resolution is but it’s perhaps not 720p. It would look awful on my 4K TV.
At last. Glad I saw this.
Can you please provide link for the beta? then we will know this is not false posting.
I think it might be through TestFlight. Everything leads there when googling “apple tv sky go”
https://testflight.apple.com/join/27XwW4TL
UK Beta program available at:
https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Online-Apps-Email/Join-the-Sky-Go-Beta-Program-on-iOS/ba-p/3900361
It points to:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/vaqcCOMF
I downloaded the TestFlight app onto my phone first. Then downloaded latest beta version of Sky app onto my phone using the above link.
After this I then downloaded the TestFlight app onto my Apple TV. It then remembers what betas you’ve already signed up for. Was very easy to then download the sky go app onto my Apple TV. You will be asked for your existing Sky go credentials to login. I’ve now managed to watch sky content with no problem so far.
I’ve got the beta. Frame rate is horrible. Bit rate is often terrible. Doesn’t link to my Sky Q box like other devices do. Patchy catalogue.
Text book on how to do crap half baked apps that are years behind others.
If the frame rate and PQ were better and integrated in with the Apple TV app, then I’d use it. But no, no thanks.
I’ve been on the beta for the last 2 months. I have to say, they’ve made some improvements. It’s true the navigation had some bugs early on that were really annoying which have on my side now been solved. The picture isn’t ‘terrible’… I have the 4K 2nd gen which does a very impressive job with upscaling and it’s really helping Sky out here as the stream resolution appears to still be the 720p30.
The on demand stuff is limited on the trial but I imagine will have access to everything when released and the app will have no functionality to communicate with other SkyQ devices on your network. I believe this is intentional and won’t be something added later on.
So far, I’m really happy with the experience it offers. They were never going to offer 1080p sadly so if you’re someone that is rocking an ATV in a bedroom with no Sky box then this offers at least basic TV streaming options of Sky content or live TV. I wouldn’t go buying an ATV just for this app.
It’s not a total disaster. However, I noticed on The Flight Attendant that there were significant artefacts & compression that didn’t improve.
The framerate locking is particularly jarring on sports & news tickers.
It feels either underdeveloped or deliberately held back. I don’t understand why – when it’s streaming from the Sky Q box, it will be local. I’ll have a multiroom subscription already. So why so bad compared to another Sky Q box? They cost £70 for an additional box as a one-off so it’s not losing a huge amount of money for Sky.
I can sort of understand why their CDN for streaming from the internet might be lacking (although really, it shouldn’t be – Sky are a huge company with their own ISP and have massive infrastructure).
This is on an ATV 4K gen 2 on a 50″ 4K TV on 900/70 FTTP (wired).
Maybe it’d look OK on the bedroom TV and that’s the point? Why would I use the ATV instead of the Sky Q box in the living room? (Mostly content discovery if I’m already on the ATV which I use for apps over the Q box because the UI is nicer).
It doesn’t make a lot of sense how long it’s taking them considering Xfinity (their comcast owned US sister company) has been able to do it:
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2022/07/01/xfinity-stream-app-added-to-apple-tv-4k/
Are there any plans for this coming to fire sticks?