topic Re: HBO MAX downgrade? in Sky Q

HBO MAX downgrade?

Brittania — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:36:42 GMT

I subscribed to Sky to watch (and rewatch) box sets of top series on demand without ads in UHD.

Shows like GAME OF THRONES & SUCCESSION.

Mostly HBO; I find the Sky originals lack flair.

I paid the UHD (on top of the annoying HD) premium.

So now, I've been forcibly migrated to HBO MAX. In HD. With ads.

AND they want me to pay more this month.

That's a serious downgrade.

I've called Sky CS, but nobody understood what I was talking about!

Anybody else feel this pain or has got a result from Sky?

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Angel_Aka — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:44:07 GMT

@Brittania

It's just HBO taking back control of their own content. Sky had exclusive rights for many years. That particular deal has now lapsed and HBO Max have launched their own service in the UK. Both parties want to make money so it's not really Sky's fault that HBO want to put their own premium content behind a paywall.

It could have been worse - what if HBO had taken all their content off Sky completely? Now that would have been a serious downgrade.

As it is I personally think it's a good thing because we can finally get HBO content with or without Sky, at the correct frame rate, not sped up, and with Dolby Vision, something we've never been able to get before.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

NickNewark — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:47:03 GMT

Unfortunately Sky now do not have exclusively to show new HBO shows on Sky Atlantic. UHD is available with HBO directly if you want to pay the extra for it. If you are not in a contracted period you could remove UHD subscription from Sky. This change has been on the cards for quite some time, some may say Sky negotiations at least gave us the content with ads.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

TimmyBGood — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:01:10 GMT

@Brittania wrote:

Anybody else feel this pain or has got a result from Sky?

The 'result' would presumably be if it's content belonging to Warner Bros Discovery Ltd then WBD gets to do whatever they want with it...

The annual April price rise would have happened anyway.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

DaveDrizen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:51:15 GMT

@Brittania wrote:
I subscribed to Sky to watch (and rewatch) box sets of top series on demand without ads in UHD.
Shows like GAME OF THRONES & SUCCESSION.
Mostly HBO; I find the Sky originals lack flair.
I paid the UHD (on top of the annoying HD) premium.
So now, I've been forcibly migrated to HBO MAX. In HD. With ads.
AND they want me to pay more this month.
That's a serious downgrade.
I've called Sky CS, but nobody understood what I was talking about!
Anybody else feel this pain or has got a result from Sky?

I am sorry you can't actually blame Sky for this one as Sky have lost the rights to show this programming in that format. The owners have decided to take the exclusive rights away from Sky and give rhe uk what the rest of Europe have had for a numbers of years now put there programming on there own app HBO max. Yes the app is available in app section of the Sky Q boxes along side all the other third party apps Because that is what HBO max is. And Sky on,y have also negotiated a deal with the owners of HBO max that gives Sky customers either free access to the basic package with ads or a reduced rate to the other tiers. Sky will also be acting as agent for Sky customers payments to HBO max, but that all the involvement Sky have with service and HBO subscription is completely separate from your Sky Tv subscription and will be taken by Sky market place either by debit or credit card independent of your direct debit payment and then passed on to HBO max. As such if you want to continue watching such programming in UHD you now have to subscribe the premium package of HBO max as, you can't expect your Sky UHD add to work on another company's platform. I should also add if you do have the HBO premium subscription you will be able to watch there programming on other devices in UHD if that device supports it, you could not do that with your Sky uhd add on either and also as the Sky UHD was limited to only giving you actual UHD on the main box and therefore limited to it to one room. With the HBO max upgrade it will as I said give UHD access any other device capable of UHD, and opens up to watching this programming in UHD in more than one room

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Brittania — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:38:43 GMT

In a way, yes.

But a proper result would be those who already pay for UHD being automatically placed on the UHD HBOMAX tier.

That way the existing, advertised service would not be downgraded.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

PandJ2020 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:43:02 GMT

@Brittania wrote:
In a way, yes.
But a proper result would be those who already pay for UHD being automatically placed on the UHD HBOMAX tier.
That way the existing, advertised service would not be downgraded.

Like it used to for Netflix... (but that was removed too)

HD/UHD doesn't upgrade any apps now. The value of UHD is diminishing...

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

TimmyBGood — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:48:38 GMT

@Brittania wrote:

But a proper result would be those who already pay for UHD being automatically placed on the UHD HBOMAX tier

That's £10 a month more from HBO, and the typical price of a Sky UHD supplement is around £6: unfortunately the maths doesn't work.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Brittania — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:50:04 GMT

I already pay a reduced premium to watch UHD programming on Netflix through Sky (compared to Netflix prices), so while I see your point it's not beyond the wit of man to negotiate a similar deal with Warners.

They're not THAT impossible to deal with.

It's very short sighted of Sky.

I pay getting on for £70 a month (with extra boxes) and if I subscribe to NowTV I get all of Sky & HBOMax in UHD with no ads for £20 a month (less for the first few) on all my smart TVs. Add in Netflix for £18 and that's around 50% of the Sky cost.

So, after 13 years, I'm seriously considering leaving.

Churn is the enemy of pay services and constant increases for a diminished service just pushes subs out.

It doesn't help that their customer services folk don't get it; I've spoken to 4 different people, none of whom had the foggiest what I was talking about.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

nigea99 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:01:44 GMT

@Brittania wrote:

I already pay a reduced premium to watch UHD programming on Netflix through Sky (compared to Netflix prices), so while I see your point it's not beyond the wit of man to negotiate a similar deal with Warners.

They're not THAT impossible to deal with.

It's very short sighted of Sky.

I pay getting on for £70 a month (with extra boxes) and if I subscribe to NowTV I get all of Sky & HBOMax in UHD with no ads for £20 a month (less for the first few) on all my smart TVs. Add in Netflix for £18 and that's around 50% of the Sky cost.

So, after 13 years, I'm seriously considering leaving.

Churn is the enemy of pay services and constant increases for a diminished service just pushes subs out.

It doesn't help that their customer services folk don't get it; I've spoken to 4 different people, none of whom had the foggiest what I was talking about.

@Brittania

SKY have done a such deal with HBO by the inclusion of HBO Max base subscription as part of various SKY Packages

Whilst it is £10 to upgrade to the HBO Premium tier this is still cheaper than the £14.99 direct to HBO

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

DaveDrizen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:10:29 GMT

@Brittania wrote:
In a way, yes.
But a proper result would be those who already pay for UHD being automatically placed on the UHD HBOMAX tier.
That way the existing, advertised service would not be downgraded.

I should add if you had now tv app instead of Sky Q service they have given HBO max entertainment with ads to there entertainment membership at no extra cost. However unlike SkyQ the HBO max content is actually a section of the now tv app and not a separate app like Sky Q. Therefore if you have now tv's ultra boost add on which give you there programming in HD and on Up 4 devices, also no ads with on demand content, it also gives access to UHD content on now tv like Sky Atlantic ect. And because the HBO max content is part of the main app if you do have this add on even the HBO programming is the basic with ads ( just like the Sky Q free service) you also get all these extras on HBO max programming with out having to upgrade to higher tier. In fact as the service is part of the now tv app you can't up grade any way .

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Gydhdjdjdj — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:58:59 GMT

And they wonder why there's now rampant piracy. Everybody company wants their own unique streaming service and it's killing the business model. Why on god's earth would anybody want a different streaming service per studio.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Angel_Aka — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:15:39 GMT

@Gydhdjdjdj wrote:
And they wonder why there's now rampant piracy. Everybody company wants their own unique streaming service and it's killing the business model. Why on god's earth would anybody want a different streaming service per studio.

Giving the streaming services their content back is a good thing in my mind. That way I can choose which service I want to subscribe to and when. You tend to also then get their content in the best quality possible, direct from source.

For years Sky has been limited to showing HBO content and movies sped up from 24 to 25fps and with HLG HDR at best. Now I can get them in 4K with Dolby Vision at their native 24fps.

The introduction of HBO Max to the UK has completely removed my need for a full Sky TV subscription so I now only subscribe to NOWTV when necessary, as well as the other streaming services when there's something we actually want to see.

There's no point paying for a full TV service which supplies a vast quantity of content we're never going to watch.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

DaveDrizen — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:20:43 GMT

@Brittania wrote:
In a way, yes.
But a proper result would be those who already pay for UHD being automatically placed on the UHD HBOMAX tier.
That way the existing, advertised service would not be downgraded.

The Sky UHD add on is for Sky channels not third party apps that is a separate subscription to the owner of that apps service nothing to do with Sky. Sky have negotiated a deal that give Sky customers free access to to HBO max basic with adds, which to non Sky subscribers cost £4.99 month and the higher tier including premium which give UHD is therefore is also discounted for Sky subscribers by same amount, so as Sky subscriber you already better off. However though you can watch UHD content on the HBO max app with just the premium tier on any other device. If you want to watch it on the app on the Sky box apart from needing HBO max premium tier you also have to have the Sky UHD add on, which also goes for watching uhd content on any other app on the Sky box.

Re: HBO MAX downgrade?

Timelord2018 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:53:41 GMT

@NickNewark wrote:
Unfortunately Sky now do not have exclusively to show new HBO shows on Sky Atlantic. UHD is available with HBO directly if you want to pay the extra for it. If you are not in a contracted period you could remove UHD subscription from Sky. This change has been on the cards for quite some time, some may say Sky negotiations at least gave us the content with ads.

Although there isn't many, Sky don't have the rights to new HBO shows at all now e.g Lanterns in August,

Rooster on Sky One and DTF St Louis were the last since they fell outside the original HBO output deal, and may well move exclusively to HBO Max in a few months.