Some questions on Sky Go (including missing BBC)

[Joe090]

Apologies if these have been resolved and I've not Googled enough.

1) I realise this was a hot topic in January this year but this is now 6 months later and, for the Sky Stream that we have (and Glass if it's still an issue), I still can't see any live BBC channels (including in channel numbers 800-) in the TV Guide on my phone's Sky Go app. The do appear right at the start of the TV Guide on my Sky puck. Given Sky Stream is...a 'streaming/internet-provided' service...and the Sky puck's DO have BBC listed, why on earth are these streams being deliberately removed from the app? - there is no technical reason for this (the SAME internet signal carries both sources). 

2) The TV Guide contains a lot of programs. Is there any way to set up a Favourites list, or, re-arrange the listing order so that those channels I use frequently are at the top?

3) Is there any way to set up an auto-record on my phone/tablet for programmes scheduled to be shown later in the day/days?

4) (connected to above) I realise the puck's don't have a record ability, but is there an ability to have a Sky channel on the puck, auto-selected at a pre-determined time so that, if possible via a 1st/3rd party recording app on my LG TV, I could record this way? 

[caesarome · Accepted solution]

@Joe090 

The BBC channels will not appear in the TV Guide in the Sky Go app as the BBC themselves will not allow them to be streamed directly via the app. If you were a Sky Q customer you could stream themfrom the box but that isn't possible with Sky Glass or Stream.

There isn't anyway to setup a favourite list with Sky Go.

There is a series link option on Sky Go but I don't think there is any connection between the Sky Go app and Sky Glass/pucks so you can't use the app to remote record in the way you can with Sky+/Sky Q.

You would need to ask in the Sky Glass forum on here about that.

[Joe090]

For the BBC content, that's a damn shame. The BBC iPlayer itself is free for anyone and is fairly comprehensive, so there's that.

As for setting up favourites in the Sky TV guide and auto switching channels (or any other basic QOL), it's pretty damning on Sky not to implement something so...damn trivial...but which would significantly increase the user experience.

We're rapidly approaching a time when all companies proudly declare, openly, that the last item of importance are their customers. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Joe090 wrote:

The BBC iPlayer itself is free for anyone and is fairly comprehensive, so there's that.

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The existence of the iPlayer is the reason that BBC channels aren't in Sky Go: the BBC needs viewing figures on its own platform to justify License Fee spending.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Joe090 wrote:

As for setting up favourites in the Sky TV guide and auto switching channels (or any other basic QOL), it's pretty damning on Sky not to implement something so...damn trivial...but which would significantly increase the user experience.

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I wouldn't assume that's trivial: for a start the current Go platform is a legacy of Sky as an independent satellite television company (it started as the 2016 Q app) while Glass/Stream is a 2021 Comcast product based on entirely different server-side architecture to the satellite products.

The existing Go app has no interaction at all with Glass/Stream, and Sky Group (a division of the Comcast Corporation) has made no announcement about any future plans for it.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Joe090 wrote:

4) (connected to above) I realise the puck's don't have a record ability, but is there an ability to have a Sky channel on the puck, auto-selected at a pre-determined time so that, if possible via a 1st/3rd party recording app on my LG TV, I could record this way? 

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Recording on a television set (presumably to a USB stick) can only cover free to air (unencrypted) content received on the television sets own built-in digital terrestrial or satellite tuner: to do otherwise would be a horrible rights violation and require breaking HDCP encryption.  Such recordings absolutely cannot be made from either external HDMI sources (such as a Stream puck) or internal apps because no television manufacturer could ever provide such a facility without breaking numerous licencing agreements.