Sky TV’s Plan to go Dishless in the UK Sees Cracks in Glass

Sources within Sky UK (Comcast) have reportedly told a major newspaper that sales of their Sky Glass product, which launched in late 2021 and is essentially a Sky branded TV that also streams content over your home broadband ISP connection (inc. WiFi) instead of via a Satellite dish, have “underwhelmed“.

The product itself, which was certainly innovative, did suffer from somewhat of a choppy launch due to its many initial bugs, missing features and the fact that many people simply didn’t want to change their existing TVs for Sky’s chunky alternative.

Mercifully, the operator rectified some of these issues last year by adapting their related Sky Stream pucks (set-top-boxes) so that Sky Glass could be used on existing TVs too, which is perhaps what they should have done on the day Sky Glass launched. But the new Sunday Times (paywall) piece currently only seems to focus on Sky Glass itself.

According to the newspaper, Sky Glass has struggled from a variety of issues, such as the higher than planned cost of the hardware (partly due to supply chain issues) and sales that have “underwhelmed” (a cheaper version of Sky Glass is now rumoured to be in development). Meanwhile, the cost-of-living crisis and competition from rival streaming providers may have contributed to the 9% of Sky customers who cancelled last year.

On the flip side, Sky’s cut-down streaming solution from sub-brand NOW (NOW TV), which offers access to a lot of Sky’s premium TV channels and content (as well as basic broadband and phone services), is said to be performing well and is home to around 3 million users (they’ve also reduced churn to below 40%, although that’s still extremely high). This may be a good indication of what consumers want to see, while premium TV products seem to be struggling.

Sky’s other broadband (Sky Broadband) and mobile (Sky Mobile) business is also said to be doing well, although the provider hasn’t released any official customer data for their broadband division since Comcast took the reins. The operator has also been slow to embrace alternative full fibre networks, which is despite paying plenty of lip service to them in the past (possibly as part of a bargaining chip with Openreach).

A reportedly senior source, who has worked closely with Sky, told the newspaper that the company was in a “really tough place” and questioned whether Sky Glass and Sky Stream are “enough to save this business“. Meanwhile, it’s claimed that Sky could be planning to cut hundreds of jobs from their 27,000 strong workforce, which will mainly impact support staff and the engineers who fit satellite dishes that are becoming obsolete.

A Sky spokesperson said:

“Sky’s unique business is built on constant innovation. In the last three years we have revolutionised our offering — transforming our TV platforms through Sky Glass and Stream to be a home for all the best apps, giving customers easy access to all the shows they love in one place.”

Staying relevant in this brutally challenging market is clearly an extremely difficult task. Many people, even those on middle incomes, are being financially squeezed by the current crisis, and premium TV products are naturally one of the areas that many consumers will be looking to cut out when times get hard.