Sky Stream Box Briefly Gains Option to Add Terrestrial UK TV Channels UPDATE

Some customers of Sky’s broadband-based Sky Stream TV devices (puck) have, over the past week, noticed the surprise addition of a new “TV Input” App that appears to activate the previously unused TV aerial port (tuner) on the back of the box – making it possible to add terrestrial Freeview channels via the old-fashioned method. But it may only be temporary.

Until now, the Sky Stream boxes have been purely focused upon the delivery of broadband based TV streaming (hence the name), which has allowed Sky’s customers to access the company’s vast array of TV content and channels without needing to hook-up either a satellite dish or TV aerial (i.e. it all comes via a WiFi or wired link to your broadband router).

In fact, the aerial port has remained deactivated in the UK and was largely believed to be a feature intended for customers in a different country. But all that changed last week after customers on Sky’s Community Forum began to notice the addition of a new “TV Input” App (note: Sky Glass TV’s already have a similar option).

The feature, as currently implemented, seems to be a bit unusual for Sky Stream because even the new App will become useless when your internet connection goes down, which removes its worth as a backup option during broadband outages (although Sky could change how it works in the future). Not to mention that most people will already be able to revert to their existing TV’s aerial and internal tuner during such connectivity outages.

The TV Input App also only picks up the digital channels (i.e. no data/streaming channels) and appears to be a largely isolated experienced on the device (i.e. it doesn’t integrate with the TV Guide or Home Screen etc.). Not to mention the lack of recording functionality (PVR) on the pucks with this App, which is another drawback.

However, not everybody can see the new App, and yesterday it disappeared again for many of those who found themselves able to access it. At present, it’s not known why the App appeared in the first place (error or early trial), although Sky’s support agents continue to state that the device doesn’t support such a feature. We’re currently asking Sky to clarify.

UPDATE 09:03am

Sky has confirmed to ISPreview that the Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) function was briefly turned on for Sky Stream in error, but was quickly rectified and turned off again. This is partly related to the fact that Sky Glass already has the same feature and the two platforms share the same underlying Entertainment OS software platform.