Sky UK Warn SD Box TV Customers – Upgrade Now or Face Cancellation in October
Customers of Sky’s (Sky Broadband) older Standard Definition (SD) TV service and devices (i.e. Digibox and Sky+ set-top-boxes) have been given a final warning to upgrade their service before October 2024 or face automatic cancellation. The warning appears to represent a slight delay on the original August 2024 deadline.
Just to recap. The upgrade drive, which has been running for a while (here), reflects the fact that Sky is currently “changing how we deliver our TV services“ (i.e. they’re changing the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) method to DVB-S2 (second generation) from the DVB-S transponder, which many older SD-only boxes can’t receive). “This means if you have an SD box, you’ll need to upgrade to continue watching Sky channels,” said Sky.
The company and other broadcasters (e.g. BBC) on Sky’s platform have thus been gradually switching off their SD channels and focusing on HD (High Definition) supporting STBs and channels. Back in May 2024 we reported that the final stage of this transition was due to start from June and run until August 2024, which the company said meant “you’ll start to lose access to all Sky channels“, unless you upgrade.
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Customers of Sky TV have thus spent the past few months being encouraged to upgrade their box to the more modern Sky Q platform “at no extra cost” (you can upgrade online or call 0333 759 5121). The new box will be installed by one of Sky’s engineers on a date selected by the customer. Customers that upgrade will once again then be able to access all the Sky channels in their Sky TV package.
“Without the upgrade, any subscriptions you have to these channels will be cancelled,” added Sky in May 2024. But Sky has now notified the remaining customers to say: “If you don’t contact us or upgrade, your Sky TV will be cancelled and you’ll lose access to these services on your payment due date in October [2024]” (details on their upgrade page).
The Affected STBs:
Digibox
➤ 4F01 to 4F08 (Amstrad)
➤ 4E01 to 4E05 (Grundig)
➤ 9F01 to 9F08 and 9F0A (Pace)
➤ 0F01 to 0F05 (Panasonic)
➤ 4E06 to 4E08 (Thomson)Sky+
➤ 4F2001 to 4F2006 (Amstrad)
➤ 4F2101 to 4F2118 and 9F2101 to 9F2137 (Amstrad or Pace)
➤ 9F2001 to 9F2024, PVR2, 9F2201 to 9F2235, 9F2301 to 9F2339 (Pace)
➤ 4E2101 to 4E2141 (Thomson)
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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Suspect this might catch ex sky customers out, as historically on sky if you didnt renew, you kept the box and carried on as freesat.
Given anyone using these boxes isn’t getting BBC you’d have hoped anyone Free-to-air only would have noticed…
Still the box won’t immediately stop working anyway – it’ll just keep losing channels as more and more move over to DVB-S2.
2 options. don’t upgrade or upgrade. Simple.
Sky HD boxes have been around ages and perform as Freesat from Sky with no subscription so the easy option for anyone who wants FSFS is just get an HD version on eBay and job done.
I’m guessing this also means you’ll be under the same terms as Sky Q, i.e. you don’t own the equipment.
This might cause problems for those who were reliant on cancellation deals after you leave, like I used to get back in the day on +/HD, presuming they still do them.
I can’t believe anyone still watches standard def in 2024 as the picture quality is awful. Especially so since these Sky boxes connect via HDMI which is HD by default.
the boxes in that list do not have HDMI – they’re literally SD only, with analogue video outputs like RF and SCART.
Anyone who has a Sky HD box is unaffected, whether they have an HD subscription or not (until the pay channels stop broadcasting in SD anyway)
as another commenter says, by now people should have noticed because the BBC as well as some ITV and other channels have been unavailable for several months.
HDMI is not “HD by default”. It is whatever format that you choose to shove down it. There is no “default”.
@Ivor Thanks for info.
@bob Yes it is, because everything with a HDMI socket supports HD and hence HD content can be watched, that’s what I’m saying.
@RaptorX I understand what you are saying, but it is factually incorrect. The HDMI standard covers a wide range of resolutions, including SD resolutions. There is no requirement for TX and sink deceives to even support HD resolutions and some don’t. Therefore HD as “default” for HDMI is nonsense. HDMI has no “default” resolution.
@bob remind me what the first two letters of HDMI stand for?
Yes, it supports lower resolutions, but it is very much a high def oriented standard.
HDMI stands for high-definition multimedia interface and is a digital replacement for analogue standards. Yes, “high-definition” is in the name but that does not mean it is “high-definition”, as in an HD resolution, by default (and several different resolutions can be considered “HD”). It covers a wide range of resolutions including SD, HD, 2K, 4K, 8K, as well as VESA and custom resolutions.
If you would like to read more you can read the full specification, or for a more accessible version the Wikipedia entry is pretty good: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI
You will note, however, that there is no “default” resolution specified. When a TX is connected to a sink, the sink will provide a list of resolutions to the TX via EDID that it is capable of displaying. The EDID will include a default resolution, which is more often than not the highest resolution it is capable of displaying. The TX device will then most likely try and provide the highest resolution that it is capable of providing and the sink receiving. This is why the HDMI standard does not have a “default” resolution. It just doesn’t work like that.
Well my brother who is autistic has got sky sd so, he still has a cathode ray tube TV as he didn’t like the flat screen TV. His vision is impaired so he can’t use on screen menus. He will think I have stopped paying for sky when the service is cancelled. He won’t understand they have stopped the service. So enjoy your lives, mine is just about to get worse.
It must be a testament to their longevity. Those SD boxes that remain must be well over 10 years old.
At least 20-25 years old, I had a white Sky box in 2000
The receivers include first generation Amstrad/Pace/Grundig which were issued at the Sky Digital launch in 1998. I remember going from analogue to digital and the compression was horrible on most channels at the start, until a couple of years later I thought the picture quality was a backward step.
so if all SD channels are being removed, how much longer will customers have to pay for the “HD Upgrade”….
Sky still has lots of SD channels – they have just moved most of them from a DVB-S transponder to DVB-S2 which requires an HD box to view – the channel can still be in rubbish MPEG2 SD or slightly less rubbish MPEG4 SD.
I have just jumped ship after decades with Sky due to the increasing cost and decreasing content. Sky seems to be focussing its offer now on those who want to watch sport. The final straw for me was Sky’s revised minimum term contract of 2 years. When I asked to see the revised minimum term contract, Sky CS refused. No doubt many of those coming off Sky HD will end up with a 2 year contract. FWiW, Sky made little effort to retain my custom.
“The warning appears to represent a slight delay on the original August 2024 deadline.”
Not quite. The August 2024 deadline clearly referenced Sky channels, not those of third-parties.
Sky has almost completed the DVB-S2 migration of its channels and will complete this process as planned by the end of next week.
However there are third-party SD channels that despite being part of Sky’s pay TV offer are not under Sky’s direct control and have separate satellite uplinking arrangements.
These include Paramount’s Comedy Central and Nick Jr, UKTV’s Gold, alibi and Eden, WBD’s Cartoon Network and some Asian pay TV channels – these still haven’t switched to DVB-S2. These will be the last pay channels to disappear from SD boxes.