Sky (Sky TV, Sky Broadband etc.) has reportedly informed its trade suppliers that they will cease installing “new” satellite TV dishes on customer homes by the end of 2023, which is widely understood to reflect their increasing adoption of broadband internet based IPTV (video streaming etc.) delivery methods.

At present most of Sky’s TV services are still being delivered via their digital satellite services, but that began to change last year with their broadband-based Sky Glass product, which made it possible to stream their TV channels and content over a UK broadband ISP connection (here). Since then the company has also announced that they’ll soon make TV streaming via their Sky Stream pucks (boxes) a standalone product (here).

The pucks are currently only being sold as part of the Sky Glass product and are designed to work with your existing TVs (i.e. adding Sky TV via streaming for a multi-room solution). The pucks originally attracted a £50 upfront cost, as well as a £10 monthly subscription, and required a slightly faster minimum download speed of 15Mbps (vs 10Mbps on Sky Glass). Each box includes an HDMI v2.1 and 100Mbps LAN (Ethernet) port.

The vast majority of UK premises (around 97%) are now estimated to be within reach of a “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connection, while gigabit-capable broadband lines are expected to reach around 80% of premises by the end of 2025. Suffice to say that such coverage, when combined with Sky’s new internet-based TV distribution products, is rapidly expected to reduce the need for satellite dishes.

According to a report on Advanced Television, Sky has already briefed their suppliers on a proposal to end the installation of new satellite dishes on homes by the end of 2023. The move is not expected to impact customers who already have such a dish installed, since satellite-based distribution and hardware support for those users is expected to continue for a few more years (they recently renewed their agreement with satellite firm SES Astra).

We have requested a comment from Sky and are awaiting their response, although such a move does seem quite logical. On the other hand, we suspect that the end-date for new customer installs is probably still tentative, not least because they don’t yet know how successful their standalone pucks will be.

The pucks support many of the same features (4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos etc.) and apps as the full Sky Glass product, albeit lacking in local video recording capabilities. But they can create a Playlist that brings together cloud-based recordings and favourites from the TV guide, on demand, and apps into one place. However, we don’t know what kind of prices and packages will be available alongside the standalone pucks, which are due to launch before the end of 2022.

If they can do a puck which lets you actually record to it, and stream the channels then I’d be all over it. You’d think they’d also manage to stamp out some IPTV users as people have an easy / no installation option (potentially connection portable)

That’d go down with the not-inconsiderable number of people who can’t get good enough broadband for that kind of use but would like Sky/Sports etc. Presumably the reality is they’re intending to massively reduce the amount they buy.

Hopefully they have something in place for addressing the latency on live sports

No, they don’t. It is in IPTV nature to be 30-45secs behind. Is it a massive problem? Satellite compared to terrestrial is also slightly behind.

Latency can be a shocker, however the work BT TV have done shows it can be overcome.

BT Sports, Sky Sports through the proper channels (not apps) are on a par with traditional broadcasts.

Well BT TV are now making Freeview channels available to stream for customers without an aerial and reports are that there’s no conceivable delay, so it seems possible to do. Perhaps Sky can’t do it when you’re not using them as an ISP but I would expect them to have something in place for on-net customers.

Does this mean you MUST have sky broadband for it to work , bttv only works with bt broadband

No, SKY glass doesn’t require sky broadband. The standalone pucks aren’t out yet – but it’d be dumb for them to require Sky BB for the same product in a different format.

No, why? It is a stream like any other.

I’d like to see faces of those who thought it will be cheaper because it is independent from huge satellite capacity costs. It will be even more expensive but there will be no choice.

Why would this ever be cheaper though? it’s just going to increase profit margin, they’ll eventually drive out sat dish users and then margins will look even better.

They’ve already set the level people are willing to pay, they’re not going to drop the price out of the kindness of their heart… its Sky.

Because satellite platform operators were always using this as an argument.

They should rename themselves to Land

Well played Mike. Made me Chuckle.

This sounds good, assuming one has a decent enough internet connection for it. However, what I’ve noticed about all the streaming services, including Netflix, is that the back / forward navigation isn’t as good as on a DVR. You can only skip backwards or forwards 5 or 10 seconds at a time depending on the streaming service, rather than the much finer control on a DVR recording or live broadcast in chase play.

Also, streaming services don’t give consistent video quality, often starting noticeably blurry at 480p or so and then slowly improving over the next couple of minutes which I find annoying. That doesn’t happen with a DVR.

So, is the Sky streaming service gonna have these limitations too? I rather suspect it might and that will be a big retrograde step.

Finally, will this mean the end of the one minute ad skip feature on Sky boxes?

These are all important questions that should be considered.

You must have a slow broadband connection if that happens to you. Streaming here is UHD HDR from the first second, when available.

Will they still also charge you extra for HD and then extra again for UHD! Like they do now. Sky are as out of touch with the marketplace as you can get. With unreliable equipment to boot. Also their business model is confusing as with Sky Q you do not own the equipment but you rent it, yet with Sky Glass you do own the equipment. This model will still cost you the same if not more, especially if they do not lock it down to requiring Sky broadband to work.

Sky have always been greedy like that, you’d think in this day and age, HD would be a basic right but apparently not! Don’t get me started on the rented equipment! When I had Sky Q, I paid nothing for the setup. But when I enquired about upgrading from the 1TB box to the 2TB box, I was told I would have to pay £199. Apparently this was a charge for the installation and not the box itself (which would still be rented) – I did explain to them that I was more than capable of unplugging 4 wires (2 satellite cables, HDMI and a power cable) out of my current box and plugging them into a 2TB box but they refused. I believe this was nothing but a hidden charge for a 2TB box that you don’t even get to keep!

DVR isn’t possible on streaming services on a hardrive due to agreements needing to be in place with all rights owners. For broadcast channels via satellite, cable, DTV etc permission isn’t required because it is covered by law

This is a bad move on Sky’s part. The glory of sky is that it allows you to control what and how you watch, and IPTV goes some way to stripping that out. Want to skip ads? Fine on a DVR but just wait until sky decide you can’t on their IPTV products. Poor broadband speeds? No TV for you. Same with big downloads – now you have to time when you do them to save bandwidth unless you have a router capable of QoS. It’s like going back to dial-up days.

Cant wait to get rid of sky this is just a money making process for them. Not interested in what they offer now too expensive and useless equipment.

Sounds like Freesat may not have long left then, as when Sky eventually complete the transition I don’t see many channels paying for a transponder just for Freesat. I wonder how long the transition will take

You can see this calling the time for Sky+, but assume SkyQ has at least 10 years of life..

I would rather keep my Sky and broadband services separate.

If my Sky box breaks, I can entertain myself with a streaming service via the Internet.

If my Internet goes down, I can entertain myself via Sky (through my dish).

Under the new system, if my Internet goes down it takes out Sky with it. I am not entertained!

Also, if you think Sky will continue to let you skip ads on shows recorded on the cloud, think again! Then again, I guess a software update to a traditional Sky Q box could easily kill that.

I think this will save me a lot of money on my sky subscription. On 3mbs download speed I doubt I’ll need the UHD package!

Does not seem to be a sensible move. Satellite is far better for brodcasting TV. If you stream TV particularly in HD it uses a lot of bandwidth. If you start getting lots of people streaming TV it will cause problems with the network

They have calculated that provisioning adequate network capacity is considerably cheaper than maintaining a fleet of satellites.

Not the best idea. Sky glass doesn’t allow you to record, it also has on demand rights so if you like something and want to keep it 6month later. You’re screwed.

Also if they are dipping into those realms their pricing needs to come down significantly to match their competitors.

I’ve got a holiday home in Spain , please can you tell me will I be able to buy a sky glass tv in The uk and use it in my home in Spain ? Thanks for your help.

never, especially after the UK left the EU

Probably VPN or SmartDNS. It will be very simple if so.

Re the standalone pucks. Sky’s junior brand, NowTV, offered a white labelled range of devices from Roku (basic HD streaming then, Roku can do better now) but gave it up.

Maybe a bit ahead of its time?

Makes sense that Sky would want to sell it’s own device, controlling the service completely, rather than just market someone else’s device.

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