Sky Glass UK Customers Suffering Black Screen and Content Display Bugs UPDATE
Some customers of Sky’s broadband-based Sky Glass pay TV streaming service and device, including those on both their first and latest second generation TV sets, appear to be suffering from a frustrating bug that is disrupting their ability to view content (TV channels, streaming apps etc.) – often showing black screens, incorrect audio or error messages.
The majority of the problems appear to have started in early April 2025, although we did find some sporadic reports dating back to last year. In most cases, those impacted find that, when they turn their TV on, it just sits there saying “waiting for programme to load” and the screen stays blank. On other occasions, it can happen while you’re in the middle of watching something.
The same TVs can also manifest other problems and error messages (e.g. “technical fault“, “device not working” etc.), such as the wrong audio playing on the wrong channels or audio that plays with a blank screen. Customers can often resolve these problems with a quick device reset, but the issues usually come back (often within a few minutes, or the next day if you completely unplug the TV for a short period). Sadly quite a few users report that they’re now having to reset Sky Glass multiple times every day.
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Several other customers have been able to resolve the problem by conducting a factory reset of their Sky Glass TV, although it’s wise to discuss this with Sky first, as their TVs can sometimes throw up other problems and annoyances when needing to perform such an operation (i.e. you might end up with a bigger problem during the setup phase). Furthermore, quite of few of these customers have found that the problem returns again after a few days.
In a few cases, Sky even appears to have replaced the odd TV set, only for the problem to reoccur. The fact that these issues all started at around the same time, and impact both older and newer kit, does tend to indicate that a firmware update or remote device / software configuration change may have gone a bit wrong somewhere. Sadly, it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened (here), but they seem to be taking a longer time to resolve this one.
Sample Sky Customer Complaint 1
“So this last week When i turn the Sky Glass on, on a morning it comes up with the usual page, i go to put a channel on and it says Channel loading then says technical fault after a few mins. Internet is all working and hasn’t changed.
If I take the plug out and plug it back in it seems to then work but has gone blank screen with sound a few times.”
Sample Sky Customer Complaint 2
“I’m having this issue every morning I have to do a restart or I only get sound no picture.”
Sample Sky Customer Complaint 3
“I have the same issue, it’s happened every morning this week. When I turn the TV on it just says ‘waiting for programme to load ,then just stays blank. I unplug the TV, wait, plug it back in then a channel will come up. Sometimes after a few minutes I have to do the same process again. I thought I would try to kick the TV into life by going to Netflix, I can sign into Netflix and select a programme but I’m told my device is not working and I need to power off the TV.”
The issues are currently being discussed in a mega thread on the Sky Community Forum, where Sky itself acknowledges that the problem exists and are continuing to investigate the cause. A Sky support agent said on 2nd May 2025: “Thank you for your patience as our support teams continue to investigate this issue. To gain a broader understanding and examine individual disruptions and stream performance, we’re looking for more customer examples.”
We have asked Sky for an update and will report back later (credits to Cord Busters for spotting the bug).
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UPDATE 7th May 2025 @ 7am
We’ve had a response from Sky, although it doesn’t add much to what was already written above.
A Sky spokesperson said:
“We’re aware of a technical issue which we believe is impacting a small number of Sky Glass customers. We’re investigating this as a priority and are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
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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Make that the same for Sky Stream too! Multiple restarts, no audio…programme loading etc etc
I thought the whole point of limiting the system to one specially designed tv was to eliminate these problems?
The whole point of sky glass was to keep people locked in to a sky subscription because it reduces customer churn as it’s a hassle to get a replacement. The software is absolutely sub-par. Sky haven’t been good at software at any point on any device, bar the original sky digital boxes. What’s worse is their TV software is an off the shelf product that any company could buy. It’s clearly faulty.
I keep thinking about switching to Sky Stream and each time I do I then read about the latest bug so I push the decision back into the long grass.
Unless you are into sport on TV, then I would not bother. I cut the cord last year and I can honestly say that we have not been short of anything to watch. With various streaming subscription offers, I am now paying less than £12 per month for multiple sources compared to £83 a month for Sky TV.
Sky Stream and Glass should be avoided at all costs. As a company they are going down the toilet. Their IT infrastructure is appalling and it takes far, far too long for them to fix things.
The server-based nature of their entire streaming platform coupled with the cheap and nasty hardware they mass produce to use it on is a recipe for disaster. The fact they have the nerve to charge what they do for it as well is just insane.
I had Stream for over a year and it was riddled with issues, and clearly still is. Leaving Sky was the best thing I ever did for my TV viewing.
Had this at the weekend.
Would change channel, the screen would display and then turn black but the sound would be on.
In the evenings we have noticed that the sound would be out of sync on some channels and on Paramount films would play but no sound at all.
Only some channels would go dark. Not all. But there is a reset setting via the menu and went through that process.
Since then, there has been no dark screens. No Lip Sync issues and we now have sound on Paramount.
There has been no issues on our sky pucks.
The future ‘satellite signal switch-off’ seems less appealing when the streaming successor technology appears to have so many issues.
This has been going on since I had Sky Stream April 2023!!! Then it was fixed, then it came back every so often… This platform is a nightmare and why I came off it.
Same problem on the second sky glass TV must have restarted TV four times this week it’s fine for a couple of days then off it goes again. Paramount plus is a headache as is Netflix. I must have Refreshed apps at least a hundred times. Ringing sky is a waste of time. Pull your finger out Sky.
I’ll just stick with NOW TV then. Works well both on my main Samsung TV & the firesticks plugged into the other TVs around the house. The days of needing propriety hardware to receive TV services is something that should soon be put behind us.
It’ll be ok folks, this just makes me more confident that sky are absolutely correct to make the push away from sky Q, and could in no way result in a decline in quality of the entertainment service in the future.
That is the problem with making some things more complex than they need to be. TV while it have had problems, with transmitters going down or problems by the broadcasters, it has been pretty reliable for years now, I remember the days when the sets were unreliable, which is one of the reasons people use to rent them, but I have not had a TV go pop in 20 years, the TV I had before I got the one I have now, lasted for over 13 years and still works, just out of date and started to have a problem with brightness.
You add more and more rubbish to TV set and make them more complex, make them rely on broadband, servers and other online services and that will always mean problems at some point.
This is not the first time that Sky glass have had problems.
Sky have started rolling back software to Q035 and people reporting it solved the issue.
Wonder why it takes negative media articles to force Sky to fix issues.