topic Re: Endgame for Q in Sky Q

Endgame for Q

Floydianslip — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 21:50:28 GMT

Looks like the beginning of the end for SkyQ.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/01/sky-uk-to-cut-1000-staff-as-broadband-tv-takes-priority.html

Re: Endgame for Q

Chodley — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:50:33 GMT

I feel for anyone losing their jobs. Good luck to all of them. Seeing a lot of that recently. Interest rates really starting to bite the economy.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 07:52:40 GMT

@Floydianslip

Timescale becomes interesting: as some of the articles are discussing, Sky actually only has four years left on its current carriage agreement with SES, and the satellites themselves are due to start wobbling in orbit not long after that.

Re: Endgame for Q

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:09:06 GMT

Beginning of the end? It's hardly news is it? It's been well known for a good while now (at least a year) that the TV satellites and terrestrial aerials are slated for turn off by 2030. That sounds like a long way away but I'm getting on myself and believe me, those 6 years will fly by.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:35:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

TV satellites and terrestrial aerials are slated for turn off by 2030.

I believe that Freeview is supposed to be safe until 2033 after the last round of Ofcom consultation: that's a much more sensitive political topic than Sky or Freesat as it's the primary (and often only) broadcast source for about sixteen million UK households.

Re: Endgame for Q

Jones_The_Cat — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:32:21 GMT

Interesting times ahead...

I wonder if there'll be a grand announcement from Sky when they stop selling Q? Or if it'll just quietly disappear from the website?

I can see the double page feature in the Daily Mail already - the final ever Sky Q install by an engineer who's worked at Sky for 20+ years and is now out of a job..."all because of that bloomin' streaming nonsense."

It may get to the point where Sky start sending Stream pucks to existing +HD and Q customers for free so they can connect it up, test and get used to the streaming service before the satellite service shuts down completely. This would at least give some time for those who can't run Stream sufficiently well to seek an alternative, be it a box or TV which supports Freely & NOW, both of which will run on less bandwidth.

Re: Endgame for Q

PandJ2020 — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:37:33 GMT

@TimmyBGood wrote:
Freeview is supposed to be safe until 2023

They appear to still be working? 😆

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:42:16 GMT

@Jones_The_Cat

It's also worth noting that the upcoming end of PSTN telephony is a step towards this, because that effectively forces around a million properties currently without any broadband at all to get online in order to use a voice call service: these are by definition also going to be the households most reliant on broadcast television at the moment, and removes one substantial barrier to switching that off.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:44:28 GMT

@PandJ2020

Whoops, 2033, of course (ten years being a nice safe and suitably far off number in political thinking ; )

Re: Endgame for Q

PandJ2020 — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:16:59 GMT

@TimmyBGood wrote:
@Jones_The_Cat
It's also worth noting that the upcoming end of PSTN telephony is a step towards this, because that effectively forces around a million properties currently without any broadband at all to get online in order to use a voice call service: these are by definition also going to be the households most reliant on broadcast television at the moment, and removes one substantial barrier to switching that off.

Alas, it seems to be a generational thing.

My parents do not have Internet/SmartPhone and like paying cash for parking, bank branches and terrestrial TV and PSTN phone...

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:30:25 GMT

@PandJ2020

Very much so, but the thinking is that the prospect of losing their 'landline' phone will spur a substantial proportion of such households into getting broadband even though they may not realise that's what's happening.

Re: Endgame for Q

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:30:08 GMT

@TimmyBGood wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
TV satellites and terrestrial aerials are slated for turn off by 2030.
I believe that Freeview is supposed to be safe until 2033 after the last round of Ofcom consultation: that's a much more sensitive political topic than Sky or Freesat as it's the primary broadcast source for about sixteen million UK households.

Are they? I missed that bit. Certainly going to be interesting working for whoever manages the help lines for Freeview & Freesat (although I think Freesat is already a foreign call centre?)

Re: Endgame for Q

whiteonline — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:39:29 GMT

It's such a shame they haven't got a decent system to replace it,isn't it 😔

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:48:49 GMT

@Anonymous

It's mostly a political thing: government (of all political persuasions) would really quite like that bit of the RF spectrum to auction off but can't risk the backlash of being seen as 'closing down television', particularly by a demographic which actually still votes.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:45:46 GMT

@whiteonline

Freely intends to be that system as the eventual replacement for Freeview and Freesat.

https://www.everyonetv.co.uk/news/press-release/new-free-tv-service-via-ip

Re: Endgame for Q

whiteonline — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:57:39 GMT

@TimmyBGood but no decent system to replace Sky Q, is what I mean.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:01:21 GMT

@whiteonline

Glass was probably a mistake: I put that down to muddled pandemic thinking.

Stream seems very much like a v1 test but is presumably cheap enough in mass production to just replace the early hardware when this seems necessary.

Re: Endgame for Q

Jones_The_Cat — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:01:24 GMT

Anyone who's worried about losing Freeview and isn't sure how Freely can be a substitute should really check out the latest version of the Pluto TV app.

It's recently been updated and shows just how quick a simple EPG with entirely streamed channels can operate. If Freely comes close to the model Pluto uses then it'll be absolutely fine.

It has an EPG, an on demand section, a favourites list and it's super-quick to channel hop up and down, just like you can on Freeview.

Plex and Rakuten TV also offer similar means of streaming lots of different live channels. All are completely free.

Re: Endgame for Q

TimmyBGood — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:03:24 GMT

@Anonymous

Some interesting wider perspective here: 2034 seems an entirely possible end date for DTTV.

https://cleanfeed.thetvroom.com/19741/news-2/terrestrial-tv-saved-from-2030-cliff-edge/

Re: Endgame for Q

whiteonline — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:04:36 GMT

@TimmyBGood it's just such a shame they have stopped progressing Sky Q, because it could be even greater. Glass and Stream are a long way off being as good as Q, I know Q had it's teething problems at the beginning, but over 2 years later there's still a lot of issues with Glass and stream.