From what I know the software people are acutely aware that people want an improvement in this area. If there was any change at Sky's side of things, it wouldn't be to make things worse. It would be to catch up with what competitors have been offering for many years.
I'm aware that some native streaming apps (eg Amazon Video, Netflix) give control over font style, size, colour, transpareny. But they do not let you control position on the screen, so don't expect that to be offered. The position is a decision made by the subtitler during the creation task, to avoid text appearing on top of people's faces , or other captions etc. This is why in some scenes you will see the subtitles move up to the top of the screen briefly.
Controlling the position on the screen is a nice feature but its usefulness is limited by the fact that the non-transparent subtitles take up such a massive proportion of the screen.
And good to know the sky software people are aware of the problem but its gone on far too long. Sky might not have the global reach of Apple or Netflix but they certainly charge UK customers more than enough to justify spending the time and resources needed to come up with a suitable replacement.
I was a long-term customer for over 20 years and have now cancelled my subscription.
