Closure of HD channels on Sky commences

Infoanon

After the closure of numerous SD channels last year , HD channels will start to close from next week , with SD versions only remaining.

Both U&W HD and U&Yesterday HD will cease with their SD versions only remaining available on Sky, unless you use Sky Glass or Sky stream.

This move is the first step in moving customers to streaming.

Sky History 2HD is also closing down next week.

greasepalm

Having left Sky decades ago i wont miss them shooting themselves in the foot and rising screw you prices.

byte

It seems a bit premature to me to be dropping HD channels already to push people onto the streaming platforms. I know they're probably not the most watched HD channels, but I'm sure there'll be more channels to follow suit soon.

Perhaps broadband infrastructure in Ireland and UK to support this move is much better than I thought…

dublinman1990

Apparently some posters on DS have said that UKTV don't think it is cost effective for them to have their channels in HD only on Sky Satellite as opposed to being available in HD on Sky Glass/Stream. It is a cheaper strategy from UKTV to move their own HD channels to streaming only.

And Sky having announced a recent price increase for subscribers in the UK makes that pill even harder to swallow if they want to continue using Sky Q in the future. And that reality may ring true for Sky subscribers who live here in Ireland as well. If you want to watch a HD channel on a Sky subscription while living here in Ireland or in the UK; you may have to watch an increasing number of HD channels through Sky Glass/Stream only for the foreseeable future.

And that reality could become a major kick in the teeth for FTA Satellite/Saorview viewers who wanted HD channels FTA on Satellite. We won't have any hope of receiving FTA channels in HD anymore on Satellite; they will just become available on streaming only on Pay TV platforms while having an increasingly expensive price tag being tacked onto it every month.

Atlantic Dawn

There's some channels don't really warrant the need for HD, those showing stuff from 90's and before, the source material is not HD to begin with, a waste of bandwidth. Live sport, films and documentaries need it.

icdg

Yeah I’m not clear this at all marks the push to streaming. At best it’s a gentle prod. Two of these three channels aren’t even owned by Sky - they are owned by the BBC. The other is only part owned as part of a joint venture with Hearst. It’s not clear as to whether this is therefore really coming from Sky at all, I know one source is putting that particular spin on it but without any sources of its own in terms of statements from Sky to back it up.

I’m not saying the push isn’t coming mind, and no doubt the end game is Sky moving fully to IP and leaving Astra. I’m just saying this isn’t the push yet. And I’ve always said that when IP, unlike the previous move to digital, doesn’t offer any advantages for customers (unless you’re still living in the era, which I don’t think was ever a thing in Ireland anyway, more the UK and even then it was the early 1990s, when there was some sort of stigma in some parts to having a dish on your wall) and involves the removal of recording (especially important for BBC channels), that it would need to be a stick rather than carrot approach.

When the push really is on it won’t be the likes of History 2 or Yesterday. It will be Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Atlantic that will be hit at that point.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123307720#Comment_123307720

How many channels do Sky have left at this stage, every year they seem to be closing channels down and not replacing them.

I have Now TV Entertainment pack since November and literally watched nothing on it.

greasepalm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123311088#Comment_123311088

Youtube and freesat for me is enough for me.

Windowsnut

Since the transfer of most stations to DVB-S2 Mpeg4 there is very little difference between HD and the SD variants particularly when most of the programming is from the age when God's dog was a puppy….

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123363529#Comment_123363529

I'm not sure about that.

If you have a good set there is a huge difference.

It does seem to vary alot between different channels, some are absolutely shocking in SD, others are decent.

BorneTobyWilde

Picture on sky is shocking paying a fortune for it, and sky sports channels are like watching 240p

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123364171#Comment_123364171

Yes they are garbage.

Was watching some Dutch standard definition sports channels at the weekend and they were really good quality.

Gonzo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123364223#Comment_123364223

I got rid of Sky about 6 months ago after 30+ years of paying through the nose. Sky was great in the 90s and early 2000s but massive increase in prices over the years and deteriorating picture quality and channels stuffed with adverts was enough for me. I have since moved to Film1 movie and entertainment tv service from the Netherlands and picture quality is much better, far less adverts and of course nowhere as expensive as sky. The movie channels don't have adverts at all just a few movie trailers between each movie, the way a movie channel should be.

This news of HD channels being removed on the Sky platform in favour of pixilated SD is just baffling and I'm so glad I ditched Sky.