Sky Stream has arrived in Ireland

babelfish1990

Hardly surprising really. There are a number of trends that are rapidly killing off satellite distribution of TV.

In the UK, where most Sky customers are, the main channels are already available on Free-to-air Freeview, so Sky has been losing customers from satellite to Freeview for years, even before the arrival of the streaming platforms. In recent years, viewers have migrated to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney etc for most of their pay-TV needs, so they don't feel inclined to pay for expensive Sky bundles for the remaining free-to-air channels. The new players such as BT/EE in UK and Eir in Ireland are happy to offer TV at aggressively lower pricing than Sky, using next generation platforms such as the Apple TV box, which also handle the streaming apps much better than the legacy Sky boxes. The migration to 4K/8K is also much harder to do on satellite than via streaming, so this is another nail in the coffin for satellite. Sky is fighting back with their own streaming platforms Glass/Stream & Now TV, which dont use satellite, but they have to be dumbed down a bit. to justify the rip-off prices they charge their legacy customers on satellite.

The UK will ultimately dictate the satellite switch-off date, because the Irish customer base is small, but in the meantime Sky will likely keep the satellite pricing higher to encourage migration to streaming.

icdg

I think though this is about their own products first and foremost, and about inevitably discontinuing Sky Q as an option for new domestic installations. They are saying 75% of new installs are now Stream/Glass. They are now going to want to make that 100%, and stop new Sky Q installs altogether, other than perhaps commercial customers for the moment. It’s a necessary first step towards leaving Astra, though by no means the final one.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698363#Comment_121698363

I'm not a fan of the idea of not being able to record so when the Q deal ends I'll be moving to freesat (until that inevitably ends)

icdg

To an extent their fortunes are tied together; the UK PSB use the same feeds for Freesat and Sky, indeed Freesat exists at all because the UK PSBs wanted out of having to pay Sky for CAS services; Freesat effectively came about as a happy after-result of that.

Once Sky is gone (though I don’t expect that to happen till 2028 earliest when their contract with Astra is up) I suspect Freesat will be not long for this world. That will be a pity for us in Ireland as it will essentially be the end of free to air access to UK TV other than border counties/east coast (and DTT by then might not have too long left either). However by then I expect both Sky and Vodafone to have sorted their recording issues out (and Sky unlike Vodafone is a good bit of the way there), if eir can do it so can they.

KildareP

I don't feel we'll see a total end to satellite broadcasting by 2028 but the days of scrolling through hundreds of channels on an EPG and having 3-4 satellites at a single orbital position are well and truly behind us.

Sky are already making strong noises they'll be moving towards MPEG-4 with DVB-S2, and perhaps HD as standard, in line with the BBC and ITV which will cut bandwidth use - and hence number of transponders needed - considerably.

I could see that go a step further with a hybrid approach with popular channels or even individual events on a channel broadcast and the rest streamed (Sky Sports red button is now largely delivered via streaming).

We're also seeing a natural decline in linear broadcasting as it is which will further reduce capacity needed.

Granted, yes, satellite broadcasting isn't cheap so cutting costs there makes sense - but neither is widespread distribution of content over IP.

Satellite costs the same whether you've 1 viewer or 10m and satellite experience for viewers is the same with 1 viewer or 10m. Hard to justify the costs if you're primarily closer to 1 than 10m.

Not so with streaming.

Every viewer costs you money. Having the capability to serve 1m viewers costs a lot more than only putting in the capability to serve 10,000 max. And you don't get a single guarantee that the bandwidth between you and the viewer will even be there to deliver it in realtime (Fortnite consistently sets and breaks its own records for peak global internet traffic every time there's a large update, for example. If you've a big match or event streaming on your platform at the same time as there's a massive Fortnite update dropped, a lot of your viewers could end up very unhappy if their ISP can't keep up).

And streaming live and in realtime is a very different beast altogether to streaming on-demand - the vast majority of streaming today is not done in realtime. Netflix are at it decades and can deliver extremely high picture quality even with extremely low bandwidth. Yet, despite all of their knowledge and experience, their highest profile live realtime streaming event last year descended into total chaos just a few minutes in.

Same as why you can watch UHD 4K Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime without a hitch, but a video call of average video and audio quality can quickly become a garbled, stuttering mess.

icdg

The streaming approach for Sky Sports is coming, they are planning to launch a new streaming platform in August/September, primarily for EFL, rugby league and tennis. Will be interesting to see how it works and how people who are paying quite hefty subs for Sky Sports already will access it.

lertsnim

I imagine it will exist as a standalone app like Sky Go and be accessable on Sky Q and Sky Stream/Glass devices.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121703888#Comment_121703888

Are they really going to sort out recording issues, or are they just going to forget about recording and make everything available with streaming instead?

icdg

Eir did (mostly, you still can’t record RTE and VMTV, no doubt because they’d prefer to subject you to pre roll ads)

Sky’s a little different because, as I explained, they work on the basis of a “Playlist” feature rather than recording per se, although I believe you can “record” channels that have no catch up service. (You aren’t really recording, you’re accessing a recording in the cloud that would have been made anyway). The issue is mainly, from what I can tell, the limited nature of the BBC “don’t call it iPlayer” catch up service. Apparently Doctor Who isn’t even on it even though the BBC made a point of retaining the on demand rights in Ireland when they sold the international rights to Disney.

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121710721#Comment_121710721

Virgin Media dont make a lot of their premium content available on Catch Up on Sky stream

E.g 6 nations wont be there for example

icdg

Probably not as much an issue when it’s VMTV and can just access the fully fledged player on another device.

(The Doctor Who mystery has been solved, they’ve sold the rights to RTE apparently).

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121711673#Comment_121711673

The Six Nations game from Friday night is available on Stream

AndrewJRenko

Anyone watching True Detective? Sky are sticking in a single advert about one minute before the actual break in the show. This has happened for two weeks in a row. Slightly irritating.

icdg

It’s not that way on Now, oddly enough. No ads (although the bumpers are there where the ad breaks should be).

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732724#Comment_121732724

Yes. See it reported on their own customer forum as well.

I think it's utterly ridiculous that their on demand content has ads anyway - Now TV doesn't, yet Sky Stream costs more AND has a paid-for ad-skipping add-on (which is automatically added to all customers at no cost for the first 12 months).

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732837#Comment_121732837

And you can skip the one ad, but it's hardly worth the bother of reaching for the remote. By the time you've found it, the ad is nearly over, and you spend more time rewinding and ffwding than the ad itself would have taken. It's a smart move by them - but at least they could put it in the right place.

Sultan of Bling

You have to pay for no ads on now as well via buying a boost subscription

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733497#Comment_121733497

You do - but boost means zero ads.

Not so with Sky Stream, ad-skipping lets you fast forward the ads, which is pointless if it's only one ad and generally very clunky if there are several (puck is liable to hang or crash requiring a power cycle).

Further, the cost of Sky Stream is significantly more than Entertainment + Boost, I would expect on their premium product that it would not be stuffed full of ads on their own on demand content.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734464#Comment_121734464

I haven't had the problem of the puck hanging or crashing when fast forwarding, but it can be slightly clunky. RTE and C4 are best, when you can push forward with FFD and it automatically stops at the end of the ads and restarts the show. With C4 you need to press and hold, with RTE you can just choose FFD x2 and up this to x6, x12 or x30 to get through it quickly.

With Sky's own content or when using Watch from Start, it is a little clunky to get it to restart at the right spot.

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734657#Comment_121734657

I suppose this is another problem with TV streaming services like this. The experience for the end user should really be the same regardlesss of the content provider.

Nigzcurran

Sopranos on sky stream is riddled with ads yet has zero ads on now tv. Very annoying

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733497#Comment_121733497

I do forget that - I do have Boost, not particularly because I want no ads (though that’s a nice bonus) but because I want HD and 50 fps.

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696843#Comment_121696843

They aren't installing as many satellite dishes so you don't need installation staff. The contract for carriage on Astra is up in 2028 and the 2 Astra satellites they use are EOL soon as well.

AndrewJRenko

That Liffey documentary could be hard work, running for more than 24 hours.

speedbird834

Yeah definitely noticing more and more issues with it recently especially with TV Guide

Loads of stuff not available on my playlists which used to work before - mainly BBC, Channel4. Luckily still have my trusty 10 year old Freesat recorder which doesn't miss a beat

Won't be keeping Sky Stream when my contract is up and the price goes up

KildareP

The Playlist went blank for about 48 hours a few weeks ago in what appears to have been a widespread issue and had never worked properly since for me.

Got fed up with all of the issues with Stream, submitted an official complaint and was released from my contract early without penalty.

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831485#Comment_121831485

Yeah I'm out after the 12 months

Really poor product.

Kalimah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838335#Comment_121838335

I feel the same. I changed to Sky several weeks ago as it was half the price of Virgin but the playlist thing is driving me mental. I can't watch Match of the Day if I come in after a Saturday night out. Several other programs didn't "record" and I couldn't understand why. I wonder can I get Sky Q instead? I don't like the interface either. Stuff all over the place.

JDxtra

Big marketing push from Sky on at the moment in Ireland for Stream. It's the default option now on Sky.com. Maybe the customer service dept. (dealing with complaints and cancellations) are not relaying concerns back to the marketing dept.?

Separately, I hope they don’t pull the plug on their existing Now TV service to boost Sky Stream numbers. Now is far cheaper (with codes) and better (own hardware) if you just want access to Sky Sports.

icdg

They’re different markets really.

Now is a budget service, aimed at cord cutters, those who cant enter into long term contracts, and those who would otherwise pirate. With some exceptions it mainly focuses on Sky’s own channels. It’s great mind you, because it’s the cheapest way into Sky Sports, and it doesn’t require you to take the basic package to get premium channels, and most of all for the great deals on offer.

Stream is essentially the replacement for Sky Q, not Now. It’s a fully fledged cable-TV like service with terrestrial and third party channels and priced accordingly.