Sky announces new SkyQ 4K-enabled box & Virgin 4K unveiled (pg8)

I've just checked "Sky Bundles" on the interweb and new customers would pay £36 per month for the same bundle I pay £42 for. As far as I can see, their variety bundle (£30) is exactly the same as their Family Bundle (£36) except you only get the free to air HD channels in the variety bundle.

Thanks for rewarding me for being a loyal customer for almost 20 years.

Sky Atlantic is a big pull since it's pretty much the only place to watch the latest HBO and Showtime shows in the UK.

Lagamorph wrote:Sky Atlantic is a big pull since it's pretty much the only place to watch the latest HBO and Showtime shows in the UK.

You can get it with the entertainment pass on NowTV much cheaper though

http://watch.nowtv.com/entertainment/ch ... AvXu8P8HAQ

While there are certain things that annoy me in regards to NowTV (the fact you can't pause or rewind Live programming, the motion judder on sport unless you're watching through an LG TV, that it's STILL not in 1080p) I can't see myself ever going back to subscribing to Sky ever again, especially with this new NowTV box and upgrade coming later in the year.

I managed to get 6 months of the Entertainment pack for £15.99 from Amazon too, with the new black NowTV box thrown in. I sold that, so I've effectively got it for a £1 a month. I managed to get a couple of Sky Sports day passes from Pringles/Gilette too, and 2 months of Sky Movies from Kelloggs.

To have £1000 a year to spend on other things again is just...great.

Lagamorph wrote:Sky Atlantic is a big pull since it's pretty much the only place to legally watch the latest HBO and Showtime shows in the UK.

FTFY.

KK wrote:While there are certain things that annoy me in regards to NowTV (the fact you can't pause or rewind Live programming, the motion judder on sport unless you're watching through an LG TV, that it's STILL not in 1080p) I can't see myself ever going back to subscribing to Sky ever again, especially with this new NowTV box and upgrade coming later in the year.

I managed to get 6 months of the Entertainment pack for £15.99 from Amazon too, with the new black NowTV box thrown in. I sold that, so I've effectively got it for a £1 a month. I managed to get a couple of Sky Sports day passes from Pringles/Gilette too, and 2 months of Sky Movies from Kelloggs.

To have £1000 a year to spend on other things again is just...great.

I use it for F1 but I have a Sky TV so it is all good. I use it on a Roku 3 and it is awesome. I was paying loads for Sky and now I only pay week passes for each race and nothing else and all the other stuff I watched was BBC or ITV.

Now available to buy for Sky Broadband customers at: http://www.sky.com/skyq/buy/build (though the site is currently down). 18 month contract also applies. Installations commence at the end of February.

Simplified price breakdown:

Installation: Free for new customers, £50 for current.
Smart connectivity fee: £49 (includes SkyQ router upgrade)
SkyQ Silver box: £99 for Sky Broadband, Sky Movies, or Sky Sports customers. £299 for those without.
SkyQ Mini box: 1 included with Sky Silver bundle, otherwise £99 (additional Multi-room fees no longer apply)
Subscription costs: prices start at £54 a month, moving to £71 (with Sky Movies), £79.50 (with Sky Sports), and £96.50 (with Sky Sports and Movies).
Sky Broadband Fibre: £10 per month
Line Rental: £17.40 per month
4K subscription fee: unknown

So the Day 1 cost for Sky Q Silver with 1 Mini box and relevant installations is £198.
If you were to take everything it would cost £123.90 per month (£1,486 a year).

You can't mix and match a Sky+/Sky+HD box with Sky Q either. It's either one or the other.

I will be stunned if this is successful. It just seems so massively overpriced and doesn't have the Day 1 feature it so badly needs to have: 4k channels.

Pricing seems reasonable. Am I right in thinking I can stream to other devices around the home (iPads, PCs etc.) freely now? I'm not restricted by the SkyGo device limits?

I'm assuming they'll have the Euros in 4k, so I might upgrade before the summer.

Shadow wrote:I'm assuming they'll have the Euros in 4k, so I might upgrade before the summer.

I've not heard of any plans of the BBC or ITV launching a 4K channel so neither the Euros or Olympics will be broadcast in 4K in the UK.

If you have the correct number of boxes you can now stream to more tablets and other TVs. Mobiles are coming later. Restrictions apply though - for example if you download a programme and start watching, it must be finished within 48 hours. Programmes can self-delete once rights have expired. And you can only download a programme a certain number of times. Multiroom doesn't exist on this service, so everything is streamed via the main SkyQ box to either the Mini or tablet.

The boxes also now take a Virgin Media style approach in that there's no expiring warranty. Your box is covered for failures for as long as you're a subscriber.

Amazon are doing the Now TV 6 month entertainment or 4 months movie pass for £19 today in the lightning deals.
£57 for a whole year of sky movies seems pretty decent.

Peter Crisp wrote:Amazon are doing the Now TV 6 month entertainment or 4 months movie pass for £19 today in the lightning deals.
£57 for a whole year of sky movies seems pretty decent.

That £19 also includes the actual NowTV box.

I already have 4 boxes and have 4 more on the way :lol:

.

They're easily sold on ebay. Maybe even Cash Converters will take them off your hands.

I used to use NowTV boxes, but I use Plex and it is annoying as hell they dont let you install the Roku app on it and you have to side load an older version. SO am now using normal Rokus, the cost more but I can use the thing for everything it can do rather than just Sky approved stuff.

Peter Crisp wrote:I already have 4 boxes and have 4 more on the way .

uSwitch wrote:Sly has confirmed that BT Sport and other third-party channels are only available to Sky Q users on their main box.

The others are AIT International, BoxNation, Nollywood Movies, Premier Sports, Playboy TV, Racing UK, RedHot, Setanta Sports and Television X.

The company's new next-generation home entertainment system has been designed to allow viewers to watch TV across a range of devices more seamlessly than ever before.

One of its main selling points has been the promise of so-called Fluid Viewing, which means people can watch watch live, recorded and on-demand shows on their main Sky Q box or another TV or tablet, as well as resume shows on different devices from where they left off.

However, Sky has now confirmed that third party channels can only be accessed on a customer's main Sky Q box, rather than alternative devices.

"The reason for this is because if you take our Sky Q silver bundle with additional mini boxes, the mini boxes do not have viewing cards - only the main box has a viewing card," Sky commented.

"We are in agreement with BT that if you have BT Sports through your Sky box, you register your viewing card for the subscription, that is why it is only available on your main Sky box."

Sky also pointed out that if a person has purchased multiroom from BT, this would not work through their Sky Q Mini box.

"However, if you bought a box from BT, you would be able to view BT Sports through their box in another room," it said.

I have heard the words "For now" applied when that's being discussed so things may change in future.

Lagamorph wrote:I have heard the words "For now" applied when that's being discussed so things may change in future.

Yeah but, they've been "having discussions" with BT since BT Sport first emerged and it still isn't available on multiroom. I just don't expect that to change, ever.

Sky announces new SkyQ 4K-enabled box & Virgin 4K unveiled (pg8)

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