Pay TV firm Sky takes on rivals with new platform

Pay TV firm Sky has laid down the gauntlet to rivals with a new TV platform that the company hopes will make its mark as a next generation home entertainment system.

SkyQ is new platform that brings more flexibility to the broadcaster’s TV service, allowing customers to watch more programmes simultaneously on different devices throughout the home, take set-top box recordings out of the home, and also boosts your broadband signal.

Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch described the service as "the biggest reimagining of Sky in our history".

With the service comes a new set-top box that contains 12 tuners, which means subscribers can watch up to five screens at the same time and record up to four channels while watching live TV on a fifth. It’s also UHD ready, and comes with a 2TB hard disk for saving your recordings. The new remote control is touch enabled, and if you lose it, pressing a button on the front of the set-top box will lead you tothe remote.

A plug and play box, the Sky Q Mini, can work without needing to be plugged into the dish, and also functions as a wifi hotspot to bring your internet connection into areas of your home that are currently blackspots.

The Sky Q Hub for its broadband customers, meanwhile, contains powerline technology that uses your home’s electrical wiring to further your broadband signal.

The platform also overhauls the search function and user interface, and adds new content with partnerships with news sites and media firms such as GoPro.

Despite the shift to mobile viewing though. Sky still sees the living room as an important part of the puzzle. Sky’s Andrew Olson said the firm talked to customers and looked at how they were watching TV.

“A lot had changed, but the the living room and that big screen is still something special. It’s where we unwind at the end of the day, and even though our lives are fragmented, it’s still where we come together as a family,” he said. “We knew if we wanted to transform TV for the way our customers live today we had to start in that main room.”

Subscribers will also be able to save recordings from their set-top box to their tablet and watch them on the go.

The new app also allows subscribers to view programmes on their tablet while outside the home, a service that has been provided by a separate SkyGo app.

The new service will come to Ireland early next year, although there is no indication yet of what the broadcaster plans to charge.

The company is already promising new features to come, including voice search and a smartphone app.

Sky has around 12 million customers in the UK and Ireland. TV providers are facing increasing competition from more flexible, lower cost streaming services , something that Sky has tried to tap into with SkyGo and its on-demand offering, and Sky Now in the UK.