is it likely ever in the future Sky to get its content by Internet rather than dish?

Andy From Sligo · 18-12-2020 7:31pm #1

do you think there would there ever be a likelihood that the likes of Sky+ and Sky Q would ever ditch the dish and go down the road of getting its content by Internet rather than by dish?

You know like the same features with a built in disk to record onto, and same time-shift features with series link and the same packages, but using wifi and/or LAN cable from the home router?

Atlantic Dawn · 18-12-2020 7:40pm

Now TV is pretty much already doing this, only really missing a personal storage space but as you can watch on demand you pretty much have a library of everything you watched.

Andy From Sligo · 18-12-2020 7:46pm

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Now TV is pretty much already doing this, only really missing a personal storage space but as you can watch on demand you pretty much have a library of everything you watched.

I have now TV too - its good, but I still find myself defaulting to the Sky+HD box because it has a hard drive in it and can do the series link etc ...

Dodge · 18-12-2020 7:48pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

do you think there would there ever be a likelihood that the likes of Sky+ and Sky Q would ever ditch the dish and go down the road of getting its content by Internet rather than by dish?

You know like the same features with a built in disk to record onto, and same time-shift features with series link and the same packages, but using wifi and/or LAN cable from the home router?

Sport is the driver for Sky dishes and as long as streaming is a minute or more behind broadcast, I think the dish will be safe enough for a while

dubrov · 18-12-2020 8:26pm

It's inevitable. I'd say a certainty in 10 years and probable in 5 years

decor58 · 18-12-2020 8:39pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

do you think there would there ever be a likelihood that the likes of Sky+ and Sky Q would ever ditch the dish and go down the road of getting its content by Internet rather than by dish?

You know like the same features with a built in disk to record onto, and same time-shift features with series link and the same packages, but using wifi and/or LAN cable from the home router?

Sky announced plans a few years ago, Sky X, tv over the Internet, they were to roll it out in Italy and Austria. Don't know if there is a delay but I wonder what the impact might be for those of us using free to air satellite TV.

BorneTobyWilde · 18-12-2020 8:41pm

The delay is huge, Bookies love to make millions off of in play bets when the event finished two minutes ago.

Andy From Sligo · 19-12-2020 7:12pm

I never really thought about the sport aspect of it all , but yeah

icdg · 20-12-2020 12:49pm

decor58 wrote: »

Sky announced plans a few years ago, Sky X, tv over the Internet, they were to roll it out in Italy and Austria. Don't know if there is a delay but I wonder what the impact might be for those of us using free to air satellite TV.

SkyX has been launched in Austria, but if you’re expecting something akin to the digital satellite service just delivered by IP, you’d be disappointed. Essentially it is Now TV (or Sky Ticket as the German version is known) but with a Sky Q-like interface. It does carry German and Austrian terrestrial channels, which Sky Ticket (still available in Germany) doesn’t.

Andy From Sligo · 20-10-2021 9:10pm

Sky Glass: With this smart TV you can bid adieu to the satellite dish

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/sky-glass-with-this-smart-tv-you-can-bid-adieu-to-the-satellite-dish-1.4698251

Sierra Oscar · 20-10-2021 9:16pm

Aren’t they already trialling this in the UK?

Andy From Sligo · 20-10-2021 11:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118050516#Comment_118050516

Think they are or going to be soon , saw it on Sky News a week or 2 back

katiek102010 · 20-10-2021 11:27pm

They have it in the UK. They have released tvs for it. You don't need box or dish

Sierra Oscar · 20-10-2021 11:33pm

It’ll be a game changer for Sky in allowing them to tap into a fairly sizeable chunk of the market that can’t access their services currently due to restrictions on having satellite dishes installed. I know my own development prohibits them. A no brainer really.

Andy From Sligo · 21-10-2021 5:37pm

will cut down on a lot of cables as well , having it all built into the TV like that. i would say it will even have a built in wifi A/C card as well so thats another cable gone - only thing I fear that the TV itself will be pretty pricey and may not have certain features that you may get on a similar TV without SKY built in.

dam099 · 21-10-2021 7:14pm

I cant say I would be hugely interested in having this built into a TV, they may be limiting their market unless they also offer a set top box version.

Many of their potential customers either already have a perfectly fine TV or would prefer choose their own (possibly higher end one). Maybe they will eventually offer it as an App that the mainstream TV manufacturers can preload like with Netflix, Disney+ etc.

decor58 · 21-10-2021 7:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118054635#Comment_118054635

By building it into a tv is the tv not restricted, what happens should you wish to change tv provider, is it not in many smart tvs under the name of NOW (tv).

dam099 · 21-10-2021 8:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118054729#Comment_118054729

Agree on the restricted bit, another reason why the TV may have limited appeal.

You are correct, NOW TV is built into a lot of smart TVs (and steaming sticks/boxes) but its still limited compared to the full Sky product as offered on the Sky Q or even previous HD boxes.

Andy From Sligo · 22-10-2021 1:38am

yes, I would be happy enough to keep my Sky+ HD box with its 500gb (or is it 1TB?) hard drive in it, but it still gets its programmes by dish (bar catch-up TV) - but just ditch the dish and have it all come done through wi-fi (I now have FTTH broadband to the home now which is pretty fast and stable) so if they done a Set-Top box now with:

Built in wi-fi and built in 500GB or 1TB SSD disk and with the same interface , operation , series link, features etc of Sky+ HD looking and feeling same in use - but getting its signal/programmes over wi-fi as opposed to dish I will be happy enough with that personally.

Atlantic Dawn · 22-10-2021 1:42am

Live sport is the big downside, circa anything from 10 seconds to near a minute of a delay in what is being broadcast live down the dish.

Andy From Sligo · 22-10-2021 1:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118055952#Comment_118055952

Ah see now I am not into watching sport so that wouldnt affect me personally 🙂 - big money / subscribers in that I suppose for them ... so is that why they maybe are not keen to push it by ditching the dish you reckon? - because its all got to be all technically possible now ... well long before now really they could have done it. I know some people's broadband is still rubbish and that may have been a factor too but fibre has been around for a while now.

Atlantic Dawn · 22-10-2021 2:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118055960#Comment_118055960

Me not too much to a degree but when you get phone alerts or a friend texting when a goal goes in and you are still awaiting the goal it's annoying. Everything else it's great, I find NowTV to be as good as Netflix with regard to buffering, never really an issue.

dam099 · 22-10-2021 11:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118055960#Comment_118055960

With the state of broadband they cant switch off satellite yet without losing a lot of customers. I imagine the costs of renting the transponders are a sunk cost regardless of whether they have 1 million or 15 million using it, to build out streaming capacity to migrate even 50% of their subscriber base would be a large cost they probably don't feel they need to incur. They have NOW TV to sort of serve the dish less market (albeit with an inferior product). The likes of Sky Glass are a move towards a full streaming model direction but I doubt they are too bothered about pushing existing customers over to it at this stage unless they are at risk of losing them.

icdg · 22-10-2021 12:32pm

The restrictions of Sky Glass are starting to come out as the early installations start. This is not full service Sky as we know it. It’s more akin to Now TV with a Sky Q-like UI slapped on top. Linear channels available are basically channels that form part of the Sky package + the U.K. PSBs. And recording has been replaced with a “Playlist” features that basically creates a link to the player app that features the content.

loyatemu · 22-10-2021 12:40pm

I assume that's down to licensing issues? If you own the network the content is being delivered over then it's effectively cable TV, but if you don't then it's streaming and requires different licensing agreements?

icdg · 22-10-2021 12:46pm

Basically it’s the same problems eir TV has encountered since it’s inception, some content rights owners regard it as an “OTT” service not a “Cable TV” service and treat it differently for rights because of that. Eir has been selective with what channels you can record because of that. Sky has simply not offered a recording feature at all.

Its exacerbated with Sky though, because it has an open EPG on satellite, any linear channel on Astra 28.2E can contract with Sky for an EPG listing at a regulated rate and Sky (unless they are generally pausing new additions) have to accept them. These channels have no other relationship with Sky and hence they mostly aren’t part of Sky Glass/Sky Stream.

Andy From Sligo · 22-10-2021 1:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118057216#Comment_118057216

So would the Sky Glass have storage built in? - I am not talking of where you have to plug in USB storage drive or USB pen drive but actually something like SSD storage built in?

icdg · 22-10-2021 2:21pm

It would have at least some storage - for OS and app usage. But nothing for recording. While 1,000 hours cloud storage was mentioned in pre-launch materials, it appears clear from those that have used it that this doesn’t have a record feature as we understand it.

loyatemu · 22-10-2021 2:46pm

Sky's streaming options are a bit of a mess - they already have Sky Go; Now TV and now Sky Glass. You can't install Sky Go on any TV stick/box or cast it, but you can plug a laptop running it into a TV; meanwhile my TV has NowTV built in and it's cheaper than Sky.

rogue-entity · 28-12-2021 9:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/115650413#Comment_115650413

And There's already a ~10 second delay before the signal even gets transmitted to the satellite, digital television isn't 'live'. I do wonder just how much of a delay is added to digital video delivered over RTP streams.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/115650734#Comment_115650734

I expect this to happen, but not for the dish to go away entirely. There may be customers already that can't have a dish, but there are certainly customers who don't have broadband, let alone fibre, and a dish is the only option if you want anything more than RTE.

I would be expecting to be required to be a Sky Broadband subscriber for that to roll out properly, but who knows

Andy From Sligo · 25-08-2022 11:15pm

Ah well it looks like the day has finally arrived in Ireland and Sky Glass launched today (25/8/2022)

- I am really tempted ... but the winter of discontent of high heating and utility bills and high cost of living are coming!

is it likely ever in the future Sky to get its content by Internet rather than dish?

Comments