Sky UK Allegedly Trial Broadband TV Service Without Satellite UPDATE

Sky (ISP Sky Broadband), which is owned by Comcast, has reportedly begun UK trials of their long-awaited alternative TV service, which would enable customers to receive the full array of television channels by harnessing an existing broadband connection instead of an ugly Satellite dish.

At present, if you want to receive all of Sky’s TV channels and content, then you need to get a Satellite dish installed. Admittedly, some new build homes with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines can also receive Sky’s TV channels over that same fibre, but this typically utilises a Fibre Integrated Reception System (FIRS) that still comprises a central satellite receiver and aerial array, to serve the whole new-build site.

The idea of delivering TV over broadband (IPTV) is of course nothing new. For example, both BT and TalkTalk have been doing this via the YouView platform for years, while Sky itself already has the broadband-centric NOW (NOW TV) platform that uses hardware from Roku to stream channels and on-demand content. But NOW TV only offers a smaller selection of popular channels and content.

However, Sky have been developing a full TV via broadband platform for some years (here), but so far they’ve only launched such a solution in Italy (Sky via Fibre) and Austria (Sky X). The company recently added Germany to that list too with their new Sky Q IP Box hardware, which requires a minimum broadband ISP download speed of 6Mbps (i.e. enough for basic HD streaming via a single viewing channel).

The good news is that Sky might finally be making some progress on such a product for the UK market too. A report in The Express highlights sources as having informed them that Sky’s TV via broadband service is now being trialled with selected customers in the UK too and that the launch may be “imminent,” but we recommend taking that with a pinch of salt as it was also fairly imminent back in 2017 (they targeted a 2018 launch).

We are checking with our own sources to see if such a product is truly “imminent“, but as it’s the weekend, then we don’t expect to get a reply until early next week. The obvious advantage of such a service is that it would give Sky TV access to a wider market (e.g. people who would like a good TV service, but don’t want a dish on their property).

Equally, today’s market is much more competitive (Netflix, Disney+ etc.) and Sky needs to stay in contention as the market evolves around it. The other challenge is that a successful IPTV platform needs to hit the ground running with all the right features, such as High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 4K (UltraHD) video quality as standard (competitors are already doing this).

The newspaper suggests that the Sky Q IP Box will support 4K, but you’ll need to pay an extra £5 per month or £11 if you want that to apply across other content (e.g. Netflix) at the same time. The UK box will also feature 1,000 hours of video “cloud recording” (PVR) functionality for live broadcast channels, which will enable customers to pause and rewind “live” TV channels.

However, the standard rental pricing for all this is expected to be very similar to Sky’s regular satellite TV package(s). The operator will have to be careful here, as they risk placing themselves into competition with their own NOW TV brand. As we say, take all of this with a pinch of salt until Sky confirms it, and we’ll hopefully get an update from our own sources soon.

UPDATE 23rd August 2021

Our own sources have been able to confirm that Sky are indeed working to launch a Sky Q IP Box style product in the UK, although at present there are no large customer trials ongoing. However, it is possible that Sky may be running a very small technical trial on a need-to-know basis (this would be normal), but equally this suggests to us that actual product availability is not “imminent.”

Major products tend to require larger customer trials, which often scale-up over a period of months, before a decision is made on the product launch. As such, we suspect that this product may still be at least around 6 months, but possibly more, away from UK launch.