Is Sky Q being phased out?

[JHB]

My Sky contract ends in a few days.  I have been told that Sky Q boxes are being phased out & Sky Glass is the future?

 Taking Sky Glass will reduce our monthly bill from £150 to £115.

What are peoples experiences with Sky Glass?

Pros & Cons?  

Can you record programmes? 

TIA 

[Daniel0210]

@JHB 

The actual satellites bringing the content to your dish, then Sky Q box will run out of propellant in about 5 years so beyond that you would need to move to Sky Glass or Stream to continue with a Sky TV subscription. 

[GD1]

@JHB  Unless you're after a new TV set then you don't need Sky Glass, Sky stream would be the best option if your exisitng TV works assuming you wish to go down this route.

Sky Q has a short life left (then end of the decade is when the satellites in orbit reach end of life) so you can continue with Sky Q if this is your preferred option, you don't need to switch at this moment in time.

[hrai]

Sky will move to a 100% streaming  service as soon as they can - older viewers will remember the move from analogue to digital. 

I personally like my Q box as it can record and I can keep stuff... but tbh I make little use of that now. We have shows series linked and recorded each week but more and more we just end up watching a stream from the iPlayer, ITVX, Sky etc instead. We don't watch movies "live" we just download as and when we need to. It's effectively now just a streaming box for all intents and purposes.

It reminds me of early 2000s when Steam launched for PCs. I swore blind that I would only get games on CD/DVDs and only installed Steam so I could activate Half-Life 2. But I haven't bought physical media for my PC for over 10 years now. I'm certain in a few years I'll have Sky Stream or similar regardless of my current feelings. I still buy the odd Bluray for stuff I really, really, really want to keep* (eg LOTR)

My two problems are 1) licensing issues* - we've seen content disappear on platforms and 2) provider network issues - we saw Sky's service for Stream/Glass going offline for a period earlier this year and last week Samsung TVs losing their streaming abilities for a few days. There's something to said for old fashioned tv transmission and an aerial.

[LynneCockley]

I've got a sky glass (and sky Q box) and used the glass for a couple of days and really didn't like the fact that you could only watch BBC for instance on BBC Iplayer, ITV von ITV X etc etc.  I didn't like this so asked that I keep the Sky Glass TV but continue with Sky Q to watch it on.   

[TimmyBGood]

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@LynneCockley wrote:

really didn't like the fact that you could only watch BBC for instance on BBC Iplayer, ITV von ITV X etc 

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For catch-up/on-demand, yes: that's a decision made by the channel owners.  Live content is delivered into the EPG channel listing.

[Invisiblename]

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@LynneCockley wrote:

I've got a sky glass (and sky Q box) and used the glass for a couple of days and really didn't like the fact that you could only watch BBC for instance on BBC Iplayer, ITV von ITV X etc etc.  I didn't like this so asked that I keep the Sky Glass TV but continue with Sky Q to watch it on.   

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You should make it clear to others that you don't have 2 Sky contracts, but are effectively using the Sky Glass TV as a 'dumb' device to view the output of your Sky Q receiver.