Endgame for Q

[Floydianslip]

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-priorit...

[Chodley]

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.

[TimmyBGood]

@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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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

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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.

[Jones_The_Cat]

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. 

[PandJ2020]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

Freeview is supposed to be safe until 2023 

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They appear to still be working?  😆

[TimmyBGood]

@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.

[TimmyBGood]

@PandJ2020 

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

[PandJ2020]

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@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.

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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...

[TimmyBGood]

@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.

[Anonymous]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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

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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.

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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?)

[whiteonline]

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

[TimmyBGood]

@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.

[TimmyBGood]

@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