Will Sky Stream allow storage on the Cloud?

[Lisa88]

We currently have Sky Q which we've had since it all began, and I can see that Sky will end its contract with Astra end of 2029

Which means Sky will no doubt push new customers firstly to Stream / Glass, but I can see Q is still available.

We live in a new build and have FTTP so speed/comnection isn't an issue, the only thing stopping us jumping across now is being able to 'store' recordings to watch later,  for example a whole box set, or a movie/documentary we've seen advertised to download and keep it stored. 

Would Sky be able to allow users to effectively store their recordings on the cloud or allow the pucks to have storage SSD to allow this at some point if customers asked for it? I would even pay an extra £5 a month for example 1TB sub.

I honesly think Sky are missing a trick with this.... and why a lot of people may not have jumped yet. 

[Hunter2660]

It's very unlikely that Sky will allow personal cloud storage due to rights issues. The TV companies have more control with streaming after years of VCR/PVR use where they couldn't control how you viewed recordings, now they can, to a degree.

[Chrisee]

@Lisa88 availability of box sets etc on Stream is down to the rights Sky or the broadcaster holds so can disapear. However what many people do not realise is that recordings can be remotely removed from Q boxes where rights change but this is not used regularly. You do not "own" recordings despite them being on your hard disc and the boxes are nor designed to "archive" programming.so will overwrite recordings unless marked with the keep flag. The studios who make programming have never liked the exception to copyright law which permitted home recording so while it is theoretically possible Sky could assign storeage it simple isnt going to happen.

I switched to Stream when it launched and in practice have found most programming remains available for months if not years. We regularly go back maybe 4 or 5 seasons to watch a series from the start. There are literally hundreds of thousands of titles in Sky's library not to mention in the apps.

The issue with Sky Q is not just its ageing equipment but more importantly is it is very unlikely SES who owns the satellites Sky use will replace them after 2030nwhen their lives expire. Sky recently removed sale of Q from their website but you can still order by phone or from a retaill unit but already over 90% of customers were choosing Stream.

[Dazzasky]

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@Lisa88 wrote:

We currently have Sky Q which we've had since it all began, and I can see that Sky will end its contract with Astra end of 2029

Which means Sky will no doubt push new customers firstly to Stream / Glass, but I can see Q is still available.

We live in a new build and have FTTP so speed/comnection isn't an issue, the only thing stopping us jumping across now is being able to 'store' recordings to watch later,  for example a whole box set, or a movie/documentary we've seen advertised to download and keep it stored. 

Would Sky be able to allow users to effectively store their recordings on the cloud or allow the pucks to have storage SSD to allow this at some point if customers asked for it? I would even pay an extra £5 a month for example 1TB sub.

I honesly think Sky are missing a trick with this.... and why a lot of people may not have jumped yet. 

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There is little to no chance of that happening I'm afraid however never say never. Who knows what the future holds @Lisa88 

[TimmyBGood]

@Lisa88 

No: 'cloud storage' is a concept which applies to user created content and (to a lesser extent) items which have been purchased, although the latter doesn't need a copy for each purchaser.

It's perhaps worth remembering that in UK law the recording of broadcast material to tape and then local hard drive was actually only ever permitted by a limited exemption to copyright that was intended to enable time-shifted viewing, and that's effectively being replaced by on-demand availability.

[BenJoBanjo]

@Lisa88 

Never gonna happen. If you want a physical copy of a movie or show then you'll need to buy it on physical media, be it DVD, BluRay or 4K BluRay to be certain of being able to watch it when you want. 
Sky might venture into the proper cloud DVR market but you will not get 1TB of online storage for £5pm. Absolutely zero chance of that happening. It won't be long term storage either, and broadcast channels would need to opt in to allow their content to be recorded & stored in such a way. 
Sky much prefer keeping control of their servers and their content. Giving the customer a portion of online storage to save content onto will only complicate things for them and mean they have to invest in more servers. 
Linear TV is becoming less and less important. Recording it is only seen as beneficial to those who want to skip ads on commercial channels. 
Rather than store box sets or programmes on a cloud drive, taking up server space pointlessly, why not just keep a note of the title on an app or even in a small paper notebook (old school!) then search for it at a point in time when you do want to watch it. Most content will be available to watch somewhere after a bit of searching. 
Since we got rid of both Sky Q and latterly a Freeview Play PVR, we've not missed recording at all really. I do have a USB flash drive in the TV for recording off Freeview the (rare) Channel 5 show that might be worth watching as I refuse point blank to watch any advertising on that network. Everything else we watch on demand via apps. 

[Lisa88]

For one example: 

I go Offshore for 3 weeks and during this time SkyQ would record Gold Rush: White Water Series 9  latest episodes which would be live on Discovery Series Link until I get home to watch. 

From what I can see there is issues because if I were to rely on Stream, when I get home I could watch Series 9 E1 then it jumps to E3....what on earth has happened to E2....and this is what really enfuriates me! Somehow E2 has been removed which is madness. 

Having SkyQ it records all the Episodes while away during the live transmissions, so if Sky does do things like this later on, at least it's saved on the HDD. 

Yet if I head into Discovery+ and search on the same Series 9 it has E1,E2,E3....but I shouldn't have to enter D+ every time, it's certainly all messed up! 

And on another note, I use the Sky App a lot, will Sky still allow customers to download to their devices to watch programmes or will this stop also?

Sky

Discovery+

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Lisa88 wrote:

For one example: 

I go Offshore for 3 weeks and during this time SkyQ would record Gold Rush: White Water Series 9  latest episodes which would be live on Discovery Series Link until I get home to watch. 

From what I can see there is issues because if I were to rely on Stream, when I get home I could watch Series 9 E1 then it jumps to E3....what on earth has happened to E2....and this is what really enfuriates me! Somehow E2 has been removed which is madness. 

Having SkyQ it records all the Episodes while away during the live transmissions, so if Sky does do things like this later on, at least it's saved on the HDD. 

Yet if I head into Discovery+ and search on the same Series 9 it has E1,E2,E3....but I shouldn't have to enter D+ every time, it's certainly all messed up! 

And on another note, I use the Sky App a lot, will Sky still allow customers to download to their devices to watch programmes or will this stop also?

Sky

Discovery+

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The solution to that is to open Discovery + app on stream to watch it. The playlist features requires certain metadata on shows uploaded to third party apps like Discovery + or ITV X for the shows to appear on the playlist correctly. On some occassions ( and its very common for ITV X shows), the metadata doesn't seem to be added correctly so episodes "go missing" ( e.g are labelled with the incorrect season/episode number) or disappear (aren't tagged correctly at all)" on the playlist until the metadata is fixed in the third party app.