- From August, subscribers will only get the full Sky Sports experience via Sky’s new sports streaming service.
Four years until Sky’s current satellite carriage agreement expires, Sky has unveiled its new sports streaming platform that will, for the first time ever, carry every EFL game during the season’s opening weekend in August.
Sky Sports+ provides Sky with the technical ability to stream over 100 different live events at the same time, removing the need to hire satellite capacity to carry part-time red button feeds. Instead, all extra coverage will now be delivered via the internet.
What it means for subscribers
From August, anyone who isn’t connected to Sky Sports+ will get much less from their Sky Sports subscription. Some games and sporting events will only be available via streaming, but all of Sky’s currently marketed range of receivers will work with Sky Sports+. Older Sky+HD boxes will not. If you’re a Sky Q user, unless your broadband is down, you might not notice that your game is coming through your internet connection instead of via satellite.
The opening weekend of the EFL 2024/25 season where every game will be streamed is just a sample of what’s to come. Many EFL games will be streaming only on Sky Q, Stream, Glass and mobile.
A year later, the Premier League gets the same treatment, with Sky securing the rights to a minimum of 215 games per season, meaning it won’t be possible for Sky to screen every game on its traditional outlets. Some games will be streaming only on Sky Sports+.
Sky has also signed deals that enable it to show more live tennis, more Super League and more women’s sport than ever before. More live events than its current sports channels can handle concurrently.
Countdown to the end of satellite
Sky Sports+ is the carrot that Sky needs to dangle in front of its satellite subscribers to get them used to accessing live sport via streaming. But as Sky Sports+ will be fully integrated into Sky Q, viewers may not necessarily notice how the sports coverage is reaching their TV. It’s a similar principle to the one adopted by free-to-air rival Freely, seamlessly migrating viewers from traditional broadcast to streaming within a single user interface. When the time comes to switch viewers completely to streaming, viewers will feel at home with the Sky Sports+ interface.
Sky is already pulling back from promoting its satellite TV service to new subscribers. Its website will force you to review deals for new Sky Glass TV and Stream pucks before Sky Q is offered as an option.
Meanwhile, it’s already reducing its army of satellite TV installers. And its current carriage deal with satellite operator SES only runs for another four years until the end of 2028. But Sky is expected to start reducing the number of satellite transponders it uses before then. The satellites that carry Sky’s UK and Ireland TV service reach end of life at the end of the decade.
Removing the differences between satellite and streaming
However, there are currently good reasons why a subscriber may prefer the traditional broadcast method of watching Sky Sports.
At present, Sky Sports users live streaming a football match may hear their satellite-using neighbours cheer a goal long before it appears on their Sky Glass TV or Stream puck.
This summer, as part of an update to its in-house operating system, Sky is deploying a new low latency version of Sky Sports Main Event, in a sign of what’s to come. The low latency version will cut the lag by up to 20 seconds.
In the meantime, Sky is also rolling out features like pause and rewind live streams to all users, including those using NOW. This is another example of bringing the streaming experience closer to that enjoyed by satellite viewers.
Sky Sports+ linear channel
The best of Sky Sports+ will be available as a linear channel that will be available as part of the wider Sky Sports+ service on Sky Q, Glass, Stream, NOW and mobile app. Availability on third-party platforms, specifically Virgin Media, has not been confirmed.
The presence of a linear channel will fulfil some contractual issues with rights holders. Some sports rights holders expect or even require some events to be shown on a traditional linear channel. You may recall that when streaming service Eleven Sports tried to break into the UK market with live La Liga, it fell foul of that expectation without a traditional broadcast outlet.
Sports rights holders are gradually adapting to streaming and new rights deals open up the way for more events to be available on a streaming only basis.
One platform, multiple devices
Making Sky Sports available on multiple devices and platforms adds extra layers of complexity.
Sky Sports+ paves the way for distribution of live sport to be harmonised using just the one platform.
As the cost of acquiring sports rights rockets, this also has a big benefit for Sky: cost savings. It will save on satellite capacity previously needed to offer red button services. And it will save costs on the ongoing development of Sky Sports+. With apps on supported devices all pointing to the same platform, it will make it easier to roll out new services and features.
For viewers it means you’ll get the same live events, features and functionality regardless of device. Extra pop-up streams for events can be made instantly available to all users.
You’ll see one example of harmonisation from August, when all compatible Sky devices, plus NOW have access to the same set of Sky Sports+ streams.
Long-term removal of traditional Sky Sports channels?
Sky Sports currently needs to schedule its twelve sports channels with content 24/7. That leaves channels with times where there’s no live content, requiring Sky to prepare and schedule filler material. At other times, its channels may not be able to adequately cover all the live events taking place at the same time.
Each time broadcast rights are renewed, there’s always a risk that Sky may not have enough new content to fill an existing themed sports channel.
This changes with Sky Sports+. Sky Sports+ allows the broadcaster to deploy pop-up services more frequently. The platform can scale up or down in size, depending on need. It will be no longer bound to the limitations of a fixed number of linear channels.
In the meantime, some of that filler material, such as sports documentaries, will be released on-demand through Sky Sports+ before they’re shown on traditional outlets.
The launch of Sky Sports+ in August won’t instantly kill off satellite TV. But with its array of features and exclusive live streams of selected EFL and from 2025, Premier League games, it will become a key driver to migrate viewers away from satellite.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: Sky PR
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