Sky TV Launching Sky Sports+ Across UK on Thursday 8th August
Sky UK (Sky Glass, Sky Stream etc.) has today announced the expected launch of their new Sky Sports+ service, which will become available nationwide from Thursday 8th August 2024. Sky Sports+ is to be included with Sky Sports “at no extra cost” and brings a bunch of new features and content.
Sky Sports+ is expressed as giving customers more choice with new live streams and a dedicated channel (live pause and rewind available on all new live streams), as well as an updated User Interface (UI) and live scores from concurrent events will also be displayed on match tiles. This will simply drop into the existing Sky experience across Sky Glass, Sky Stream, Sky Q and NOW TV, so customers don’t need to do anything extra to benefit.
Sky noted that the launch has come just in time for the EFL opening weekend, with every game from across the Championship, League One and League Two streamed live, which is said to be “a first in broadcasting history“.
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The provider has also launched a special offer for new customers to get Sky Sports (inc. Sky Sports+) and Sky TV in Ultra HD, plus Netflix (standard with adverts) included for the price of £43 per month. But the small print notes that this requires Sky Stream or Sky Glass TV (from £14 extra pm) and the offer price will end on 21st August 2024.
Sky Sports+ Content for August
• Watch your EFL team over 20 times a season, live
• Enjoy over 1,000 live EFL games, including every Carabao Cup fixture
• Watch every match from the men’s Rugby Super League
• Over 100 tournaments across the US Open, ATP and WTA tours
• Offers the capability to show up to 100 events concurrently
• Available on Sky TV, the streaming service Now TV, and on the revamped Sky Sports mobile app
Sky Sports+ will also give customers exclusive access to Sky’s sports documentaries “at least two weeks before anyone else“. In addition, Mobile users will get new personalisation options to follow their favourite teams and competitions, as well as improved navigation and access to all Sky Sports+ live streams via event centres.
Jonathan Licht, MD at Sky Sports, said:
“Sky Sports+ is here, taking sports viewing to the next level by offering unmatched access and choice through numerous live streams and our new dedicated channel. We’re showing up for football fans like never before this season, showing every EFL team more than 20 times a season, and this weekend, our viewers can look forward to seeing every EFL game live. We’re thrilled to offer this to customers at no extra cost, ensuring they can enjoy even more of the sport they love this summer.”
Sky Sports+ can be found on linear channel number 410 for Sky Glass customers, 412 for Sky Q customers and 416 for ROI.
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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The fact that Sky offering this on Now TV from the start(alongside last weeks news about Now TV getting 4K) is starting to make me wonder if in the longer term Sky really want to be in the hardware game at all. I could see at some time in the future Now TV and Sky Stream converging into a Sky Stream app that runs on Smart TVs / Games Consoles / Firestick etc in the same way that other streaming services do with the potential of large cost savings for Sky. They are wanting to get people off of satellite so this could be a logical next step.
I’ve been wondering for a few years whether Sky’s continued use of custom hardware is either a way to differentiate itself (as well as another way to charge more money) or a form of DRM/control.
Take the Sky Q minibox, I doubt they couldn’t have made this into an app.
In my case it also makes leaving them more troublesome because of the cost to get miniboxes should I want/be forced to come back.
Yes, content is king. Sky has the content, so why bother with all the problems associated with developing hardware, installing & maintaining it in the future. Just run your service on an App and you can get rid of all the installers, 90% of call handlers, uplinks, satellite capacity etc.
Sky Q is slowly being phased out. I understand Sky Glass has not sold in the volumes hooed for. It seems to me that in giving Now TV 4K they are somewhat undermining their stream products.
I think the biggest barrier to just an app is the 30% cut given to Apple or Google, though should alternative app stores become a thing, that would help them avoid it
@Obi
Can’t this be avoided by just making the app login only?
Also alternative app stores already exist on Android.
If it was a problem they would have already had it with the existing Now TV app so I couldn’t see it being a problem.
@tech3475 Fair point but I would say App Store rules prevents even mentioning alternative payment methods, creating quite the hurdle for customers. Spotify does app only but it’s more an exception to the rule (they aren’t really growing either)
@tech3475 this is definitely possible, but do keep in mind Apple prevents the mention of alternative methods of subscribing. That’s quite a hurdle that only some companies can pull off
Man – the sky branding department really needs to get their act together… How many more sub brands do they want to create? Nobody understands this anymore… Unless this is their intention
I understand them all