Sky Q - being phased out?

[ThePope27]

@Laing1 

Im going to stay hopeful, maybe SES will extend to 2030 as that's when the sat becomes EOL maybe SES will run it a few more years past it's EOL, it's upto the powers that be at SES and Sky 

Wonder how sky will provide tv to pubs and clubs etc.

[rg99]

Can't Sky Q continue on broadband only, if there are sufficient users? 

[nigea99]

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@rg99 wrote:

Can't Sky Q continue on broadband only, if there are sufficient users? 

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no - SKY Q uses Satellite for live channels

Stream is the product for broadband only 

[rg99]

My question was sky could feed the live channels to Q over broadband if they wanted. 

[nigea99]

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@rg99 wrote:

My question was sky could feed the live channels to Q over broadband if they wanted. 

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That is what SKY Stream currently uses (although some non SKY channels availble via Satellite are not yet availble)

BTW SKY Q will not be adapted to use them

[rg99]

OK Thanks. You've answered my question. 

[bemak187]

The Q hardware itself is getting very dated now which will also be a driver to phase it out.  Given the end goal is to move away from the system towards steaming they arent going to update it.  It is already about 10 years old being designed in 2014/2015 and is showing its age (under powered, no Dolby Vision support, very legacy mesh implementation etc).  By say 2028 Q will be pushing 15 years old, Sky wont want to keep manufacturing and supporting boxes/firmware etc.  Q must be close to getting pulled as a new product, maybe this year, maybe next.  Then a slow 3 or 4 year move of all customers over to stream with offers, incentives, continual updates to they features.  The only thing i think holding them back is the lack of universally available "good" broadband as they dont want to lose customers who phsycally dont have the speeds to support stream at the moment.

[TimmyBGood]

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@ThePope27 wrote:

Wonder how sky will provide tv to pubs and clubs etc.

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Presumably over business broadband, which is already essential in those premises to run payment card terminals, security systems and other online hardware.

[TPick1]

2028 is a way off, but at the moment I'd rather stick with Q and have my recordings to watch as and when I want, rather than rely on what I want to watch only being available at the whim of whoever it is streaming from.

[SteveOC]

I have Sky+HD for just over 13 years. No later than last week I got a call from Sky asking if I wanted to upgrade toSky Q so I assume it will be around for a while yet. The call was timely though as I am having some issues with my + HD box so I would have had to upgrade anyway.

[ThePope27]

@SteveOC ,

If you didn't want to upgrade your box and you were having issues with your current box, 

you could buy one off eBay 2nd hand.

[bemak187]

@SteveOCThe move from Q to Stream will be different than the move from Sky HD to Q and I doubt will take anywhere near as long.  Sky will be much more agressive trying to move people.  HD and Q both use essentially the same satellite infrastructure so there was no real pressure but now they are looking to move away from this.  Its not going to be anything like overnight but I would suspect 2 - 4 years at which point they will force the move so they can wind down the satellite deal.

[gszab1]

https://rxtvinfo.com/2024/bbc-reviews-future-of-satellite-tv/ 

Honestly I can't really imagine sky satellite will exist beyond 2028. Maybe a very limited nightlight service, but nothing more.

[Spaceman05]

I would be sirprosed if Sky dont try and extrnd the satelitte system, they will lose alot of customers, i lnow cities amd large towns that have good enough broadband, but there is still plenty of areas in the country that dont either recieve dast enough or reliable enough broadband to be able to make stream/glass viable, so that would be alot of income lost to sky

[TimmyBGood]

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@Spaceman05 wrote:

I would be sirprosed if Sky dont try and extrnd the satelitte system

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As discussed above, satellite television requires broadcast satellites, which Sky has never built, launched, owned or operated.

If the current satellites at 28.2E aren't replaced before the end of their operational life, satellite television in the UK cannot be a thing* because every Sky and Freesat dish will be pointing at (quite literally) empty space.

*Yes, dishes of sufficient size oriented for other orbital locations could still work for viewing free-to-air (and typically non-English language) services intended for mainland Europe, but that doesn't really help...