The end of satellite television??

Quote from BBC News

Sky plans to make all its channels and content available online, meaning customers will no longer need a satellite dish on their property.

The pay TV company already offers some programming online on its Sky Go and Now TV services and through Sky boxes.

Italy will be its first market to get all Sky channels online, followed by Austria, with the UK expected to follow later this year or in 2019.

In Sky's latest earnings report today, I was hoping they were going to announce details of their streaming/IPTV service, but they have made clear it is on the way.

The main bit of information here from Jeremy Darroch, Sky's boss, is that the company is operating in a challenging environment and feeling the squeeze of Netflix and clearly sees an opportunity to reduce costs by launching all their channels online.

Could this mark the beginning of the end of satellite tv in the UK? If all of Sky's channels become available online as Sky has announced they would, why bother with a dish and all the weather related interference that goes with them?

The other main issue is that Sky's broadband service piggyback's off BT's (Openreach's) and can still only mange top speeds of 76Mb, although that is still plenty for a streaming service. But with 4k and the average household now owning several televisions, will 76Mb be good enough for SKy's new service?

Sky X - Sky`s satellite-free TV service is unveiled

Quote from a516digital

Sky has launched a new satellite-free streaming service in Europe. Could it be on its way to the UK?
Sky X is the new online streaming service available to households in Austria that offers all Sky TV channels, plus 29 non-Sky pay channels and 17 free TV channels, without needing a traditional satellite or cable connection.
Available on PC, Laptop, Mac, iOS, Android, Playstation 4 as well as Smart TV sets from Samsung and LG (post 2015 models), subscribers can also opt to use Sky's own streaming box.

Hot on the heals after the Comcast takeover, the belated Sky IPTV service launches, but not here yet.

It's interesting to note from the article, that Sky isn't now launching a full IPTV/streaming version of their existing satellite tv service, but a more cut down version including all their own channels, plus selected others, a bit like Now TV+.

It will be interesting to see when/if this service launches in the UK and what happens to Now Tv as a result. Comcast had initially said they were going to expand Now TV to other countries, but perhaps it will be Sky X that might ultimately become the Comcast/Sky global streamer instead??

Quote from RXTV Log

Sky launches satellite dish free TV service in Italy

Sky has launched a fibre-only TV service in Italy, expanding its satellite-free TV service to two countries.

Earlier this year, Sky Austria launched a service called Sky X, giving access to a range of free-to-air and pay TV channels delivered via a user's internet connection.

Now Sky's Italian arm has launched a version of Sky Q that promises to offer almost the same experience of the satellite version of Sky Q, just via fibre broadband.

Sky's IPTV service is now in two countries, but no UK launch date yet. However, Sky are about to launch FTTP (fibre) broadband packages here, so perhaps the IPTV service may launch then.

It would be nice to have a choice of more than one "cable" provider.

Unless they're talking about NOW TV, there is no Sky service down the line yet.