Sky TV has been the subject of some frustration for me recently. I really want the live Barclays Premier League football but I can’t take out a monthly subscription or get a dish fitted to my house. It’s also a high subscription fee every month (£40, currently) and about 200 channels that I not only have no interest in but actively do not want piped into my home. It’s just impossible for me to justify the negatives.
I’ve often mentioned that I’d like a streaming-only service, available via my iPad, Xbox or smart TV. Sky Go currently handles that side of Sky’s service but that is only accessible to existing Sky TV subscribers (who pay that £40 fee…) so it’s no use to me or any of the other people who would no doubt love to be able to access Sky’s premium content via a compartmentalised pricing scheme. It seems that Sky has realised this potential and today they made a very interesting announcement.
From later on this year, Sky will offer a rolling monthly or Pay as You Go package which allows viewers to pay for what they want to stream and avoid the need for a dish or bloated package. There’s no word on pricing as yet but their Sky Go app will launch on Android devices in February and the new streaming service is due in the first half of this year. Initially it will feature Sky Movies but Sky Sports and entertainment packages will follow soon afterwards.
The statement also made a point of mentioning that the service would allow users to stream to consoles, in the plural. This gives us hope that a Sky streaming application will arrive for the PS3 and perhaps even the Vita as well as the existing Xbox 360 option.
Thanks, E8_BALL_
cc_star
Needed on the PS3 IMO, unless they launch a SmartTV App which everyone & their dog is doing recently
colossalblue
in its current form, Sky Go is a bit rubbish. In this form, it has the potential to be amazing. They just have to get the pricing low enough to appeal without making it too attractive to people who currently pay for Sport and Movies but subsidise all the shit channels with the full package.
They’d be mad not to get on PS3 though, once their deal with MS runs out. They’re Netflix/LoveFilm competitors so every market counts, even the crappy TV Apps.
Youles
I thought you could pay £6.99 a month for Sky Sports on your phone/iPhone…or has that been replaced by SkyGo which is only for customers?
PLEASE have SkyGo on PS3, that would be awesome!!
colossalblue
That £6.99 was in addition to your regular Sky subscription for something called Anytime, I think. That fee was dropped when they launched SkyGo which is now going to be replace/reshuffled with this new service.
You can get Sky Sports individually via TopUpTV on Freeview but that’s awful too, in my experience. I think BT also has some way of accessing Sky stuff via their catch up TV box thing but I’m currently very grumpy with BT for telling me barefaced lies when they broke my broadband so I have never looked too closely at that deal. It’s enough that I’m contemplating giving up my Murdoch boycott for Sky Sports after fifteen years, giving in to BT at the same time would just make me hate myself ;)
DirtyHabit
“Sky Go currently handles that side of Sky’s service but that is only accessible to existing Sky TV subscribers”
Not true. I have SkyGo on my Xbox as we speak. Its £32 a month with all the film channels,(not into football)
Its month by month, no yearly subscription and I am not an existing Sky customer, all I have is the SkyGo Monthly ticket.
I got it for the Christmas Break initially but have kept it on into Feb…
cam the man
Sounds like a very good idea, and a profitable for Sky.
TSBonyman
PS3 option would be good, although i would prefer the option to use an existing Sky account as i could use my folks account to access it.
On the ipad i just use Film on Tv plus for the beebs/itvs etc as it’s free.
tonycawley
Charge me a fiver to watch a premier league game streamed through my ps3 and I’ll watch loads. This could end up being excellent
kjkg
I doubt I would go as steep as £5 but that might say more about the quality of my team then the pricing structure.
tonycawley
When you say steep, do you mean high? If so you do know we’re talking about sky here right? A fiver would be a bargain, I’ll be very surprised if a premier league game is less than £10.
ron_mcphatty
After trying Sky Anytime+ and getting increasingly frustrated at being offered nothing I could watch on our basic sky package, I’m leaning towards the uber cheap and increasingly popular Netflix. PAYGO seems like a smart move for Sky, maybe they’ll make enough money to justify making Film4 HD a free channel!
E8_BALL_
When I looked a Netflix last week(ps3,) there was only an outdated catalogue on show. Men In Black springs to mind of what I saw & other relics. Not what i’d expect for a new platform debut.
ron_mcphatty
Ah, hmmm, maybe that all the guys raving about it have low standards!
colossalblue
It’s not great for newer movies and latest seasons of TV shows (but then, neither is LoveFilm). It’s a reasonably large back catalogue of quality – older – stuff though.
I guess it depends what you want from a streaming service. Sky Movies is always useless for me because it has films well after their DVD release, when I’ve seen any I wanted to and it only has about half a dozen different films a month played on a loop. LoveFilm’s streaming catalogue was poor (although it has improved since), the quality of the stream was a terrible, sub SD blur and the customer service when I was trying to cancel was insulting.
Netflix has lots of TV shows that I didn’t catch up on and some decent documentaries that I’ve missed. Whether they can keep up the stream of content I want is what decides whether or not I keep up my subscription, and that’s the key thing to remember – you find what suits you and use that service.
cc_star
‘First run’ movies are highly profitable & will probably be never included in an all you can eat subscription fee where revenues are low… This makes Sky’s package interesting as they have the rights for first run movies so will be interesting to see how their subscription compares.
E8_BALL_
Don’t get me wrong I love older quality movies incl MIB, I even like a good b&w movie i.e. ww2 or western. TBH i’m not that bothered about watching the latest upon release & have never browsed l.film or sky movies, so i’m a noob as to what to expect in this field. From what I understand after a little googling, you can only get up-to-date movies, by renting dvd/blu-ray from L.Film.
If I can stream in high quality, with no subscription, that’s the service for me, regardless of when a movie was released. I dare say if Netflix &or L.Film weren’t sub based, i’d be browsing both tonight for a decent flick, I just tend to avoid subscription services. As Peter has said, you find the service that suits you & it looks like soon, there will be something for all tastes.
E8_BALL_
“First Run Movies,” i’m new to that term. I really have been gaming excessively.
On reading that, I googled it & ironically found this…
“Netflix announced that it has signed a multi-year deal with newly-formed film distribution company FilmDistrict to bring first-run films to its streaming catalog. According to the terms of the deal, Netflix will work with FilmDistrict to license content for streaming in the pay TV window, which occurs in the few months after a movie is released on DVD.”
Quoted from an old article, stating this would begin from the start of last year. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netflix_boosts_streaming_catalog_with_first-run_mo.php
Scruffy Nerfherder
Agree with Film 4 HD. Only on freeview (or whatever) at the mo but hope it hops over to Sky too.
Bilbo_bobbins
I’m interested now
adevow
I hope this hits PS3 in time for Formula 1 now Sky has nicked the live coverage and best presenters from the BBC.
giantwoman
F1 in HD on the PS3 please…
yogdog
That’d be nice! Cricket for me as well, please…
E8_BALL_
The odd Premier match, a good movie at the weekend & occasional weekday evening, is all I want. If this comes to PS3 i’ll be well happy, especially the Premier aspect. Plus my bro can have his F1 back.