Sky Stream

[alanbrighton]

Hello I just got Sky Stream and going through the channels there are no + channels ie UK Gold + and some movie channels missing

[Ellie_TV]

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@alanbrighton wrote:

Hello I just got Sky Stream and going through the channels there are no + channels ie UK Gold + and some movie channels missing

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That is correct. Did you check the availability of channels before signing up? 
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/tv-channel-list-sky-glass 

[alanbrighton]

I was told by the person on the phone who set my order up that + was included 

[Ellie_TV]

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@alanbrighton wrote:

I was told by the person on the phone who set my order up that + was included 

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I'm afraid you were told incorrect information. Sky salespeople only tend to focus on making sales and aren't necessarily the best informed when it comes to what the products they sell are capable of. 

[alanbrighton]

Thanks I will cancel it and return the box

[TimmyBGood]

@alanbrighton 

Perhaps worth noting that+1 channels won't last beyond the end of satellite broadcasting, and some may well cease before then as a cost saving for the channel owners.

[Alistair+Burns]

The intention of Sky Stream is to provide access to programmes in a far more flexible way than + channels..Many but not all channels alow you to watch a programme from the beginning and also view any previous episodes.

A + channel simply allows you to view from an hour before which is not what you actually want if you tuned in 40 minutes through a one hour programme and have to wait 20 minutes to watch it from the start on a+ channel. There is sometimes a delay between a programme ending and it being available on catch up, not ideal, but in most cases the different way of viewing should negate the need for a + channel.

[Ellie_TV]

None of this really excuses the mis-selling by the Sky salesperson. 

There are still many, many customers who like the simplicity of the +1 channels and aren't as well-versed in the culture of 'watch from the start' or even simple on demand viewing. It's largely a generational thing. My elderly mother for example steadfastly refuses to use anything other than live TV. We've tried her with Sky Stream and she hated it. She won't use any of the catch-up apps built in to her TV despite me spending hours getting her registered on all of them and connecting the TV to her broadband. All she wants is live free-to-air TV. If she misses something (or falls asleep during something) then she doesn't really mind. It's just a telly programme. There'll be something else on to watch instead. The +1 channels at least give her some chance of seeing something she may have nodded off during and that's all that matters to her.

[Alistair+Burns]

Good comment and agree it sounds like a rogue selling practice.. Maybe a TV Guide allowing users to scroll backwards and indicate where the earlier programmes are now available without having to enter the less simple world of iPlayer and ITVx?

[TimmyBGood]

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@Alistair+Burns wrote:

Maybe a TV Guide allowing users to scroll backwards and indicate where the earlier programmes are now available

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I believe that a backwards-scrolling EPG is intellectual property belonging to someone else....

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Alistair+Burns wrote:

Good comment and agree it sounds like a rogue selling practice.. Maybe a TV Guide allowing users to scroll backwards and indicate where the earlier programmes are now available without having to enter the less simple world of iPlayer and ITVx?

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You sort of get that by voicing or text search the show anyway, as it comes up with next broadcast times and where the show is available on watch on-demand.

[Stephen+Mourton]

@Ellie_TV   Clearly Stream is not suitable for people like your mother, in fact mine, when she was alive, was just the same.  If the phone rang or someone at the door she would just turn the volume down or switch off, even though she could use the pause button on her remote, but as daft as it sounds she could never grasp the concept.  

All that being said you can hardly produce mainstream products based on people like our mothers.  As has been mentioned there isn't a +1 channel because you don't need one, the vast majority of programmes can either be watched from the start or watched on catch-up which is surely just the same as using +1 but with more flexibility.

[Alistair+Burns]

Even the pause button isn't always suitable particularly when selecting Watch From Start. If you pause then nip out to the kitchen and peel some spuds it gets to a certain point and returns to the live broadcast. If the pucks had some kind of storage this could likely be avoided but assume keeping the costs down eliminates this.

[Ellie_TV]

It's an interesting debate, one which will continue to occur on a semi-regular basis as technology advances.

It's not all that different to when VHS recorders arrived and introduced the ability to watch recorded programmes at alternative times. What a mind-blowing event that was. Then Sky+ took it up a level and introduced the ability to start watching a programme whilst it was still recording and chase-play was born. What a game-changer that was. 

Streaming has really introduced a different viewing mind-set in that the old linear TV schedules are becoming less and less important. The younger generation have little concept of what prime time event TV is any more. There's no longer a need or desire to sit down with the family to watch Top of the Pops, Coronation Street or X Factor. We aren't limited by schedules any more, TV is much more driven by word of mouth in the younger generation - if someone in a friendship group talks about something they've watched then the others will just search for the streaming service it's on and watch it whenever they like. 

The older generations, like my mother, still like the familiarity of a schedule, and like having less choice in many ways. When my mum tried Sky Stream she just found the EPG seemingly endless and the whole UI utterly confusing. Now that she's gone back to Freeview on her TV, she's back in familiar territory. Channels 1-5 are all she generally watches, but she knows of the existence of the +1 channels and how to find them and that's fine for her. I've even managed to completely remove all internet connection to her TV and she now no longer gets on-screen prompts on BBC channels to open iPlayer to watch from the start. Again, that suits her just fine. 

I think Sky Stream is catching a lot of people out because they're still expecting it to be like Sky+ or Sky Q, but just through the internet and it's not. Once the mind-set of more people gets used to streaming pretty much anything on demand and not relying on schedules to determine their viewing, it'll settle down. Right now there's still too much confusion both from customers and from Sky salespeople about what the Sky Stream service actually is and what it's capable of.