Sky Q is now available to buy, but before you do, read on for the latest on Sky Q bundles, pricing and availability.
Sky Q is a new way for you to “watch what you want, when you want”. Essentially you can drop and pick up recordings and on demand programmes or Sky Store purchases seamlessly, whichever room you’re in. Plus there are new ways to take your recordings with you, too. It’s designed to be Sky’s top-end offering and is priced as such.
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Sky Q availability and installation
Sky Q is now available to buy in both the UK and Ireland and you can specify the bundle you want as well as the box – see below for more on these.
UPDATE: It seems that Sky Q is currently only available to order if you have Sky Broadband, although we’re expecting that to change soon. We know that Sky wants to prioritse existing Sky Broadband customers for Sky Q installations, so this makes sense.
These links will take you to Sky’s site where you can buy Sky Q or find out more. Home installations will begin at the end of February.
Which Sky Q devices will be available?
Sky Q is powered by some new devices. There’s a new home screen and programme guide plus a top-end Sky Q Silver 2TB box that can record up to four channels (there’s actually 12 tuners in the box). The standard Sky Q box is less good, but a drastic improvement on Sky+HD. You can watch up to five things at once on TV and mobile devices – more on that shortly.
There are several hardware options for Sky Q as well as a new app for tablets – a smartphone version will launch later.
- Sky Q Silver and Sky Q are two new boxes for the main TV set, featuring up to 12 tuners and up to 2TB of storage
- Sky Q Mini is a new plug and play box giving access to Sky Q in other rooms in the home without running cables from the dish
- Sky Q Hub – the all new Hub has built in Powerline networking technology as well as Wi-Fi
Sky Q set-up costs
Set-up costs for Sky Q are from £99. But then it can seem a bit confusing.
If your bundle has Sky Broadband or Sky Sports or Sky Movies things are cheaper – £99 for the standard box and £149 for Sky Q Silver on the standard bundle and £99 if you have the Silver bundle (see below).
If you don’t subscribe to any of Sports, Movies or broadband then set-up costs are £249 or £299. Quite a bit. Clearly Sky wants to you to have the premium content – doesn’t it always?
Sky Q monthly price
According to Sky, the typical monthly cost for existing Sky+ customers will be around £12 extra compared with their current Sky+ package. Broadly, the good news is that the costs are cheaper than we thought they might be. Sky says that some customers could end up paying as little as £1.50 more a month for Sky Q.
For new customers joining Sky, the ongoing monthly cost for Sky Q will start from £42. Then you need to factor in Sports and Movies if you want those. That’s around £76 a month total as the starting price for Sky Q with all the content.
That’s not including the Sky Q Silver box which is £12 more a month – see below for the bundle details. So for the Sky Q Silver top end package most people will be paying around £88.
It seems from the set-up costs info, you can have the standard Sky Q bundle on the Silver box, which is all very confusing – surely it would make sense to have the Silver bundle the only thing on the Silver box. Or at least called them different things.
All customers who already have Sky Broadband or who purchase Sky Broadband when buying Sky Q also receive the new Sky Q Hub for free. Interestingly Sky Q installations will be phased with Sky Broadband customers receiving the product first.
Sky Q Bundle £42 a month for new customers
– Sky TV in 1 room
– Stream TV on 1 tablet
– Take recordings with you (via the Sky Q app)
– Record 3 shows and watch a 4th live (Smart Features)
– Store up to 150 hours with 1TB storage on the Sky Q Box
– 300+ channels including Sky 1, Sky Living, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic
– 50+ HD channels
– Over 300 Sky Box Sets on demand
– 3D on demand
– Service visits included
– Sky Go Extra
The nearest equivalent bundle in terms of content (range of channels, HD and Sky Box Sets) to Sky Q is the Family Bundle (£36).
Sky Q Silver Bundle £54 a month for new customers
Bundle includes:
– Sky TV in 2 rooms via Sky Q Silver box and Sky Q Mini (viewing in extra rooms available at additional cost)
– Stream TV on 2 tablets
– Take recordings with you (via the Sky Q app)
– Record 4 shows and watch a 5th live (Smart Features)
– Store up to 350 hours with 2TB storage on the Sky Q Silver box
– 300+ channels including Sky 1, Sky Living, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic
– 50+ HD channels
– Over 300 Sky Box Sets on demand
– 3D on demand
– Service visits included
– Sky Go Extra
One Sky Q Mini box is provided with the Silver Bundle. Sky Q Silver customers wanting to view on a third TV screen can pay an extra £99 and will receive an additional Sky Q Mini.
Sky says it will be launching Ultra HD sports, entertainment and movie channels “later in 2016” but they won’t be ready for launch (think new football season in the Summer). That’s a shame, but Sky clearly feels the consumer requirement for Ultra HD isn’t there yet.
Sky Q add-on services
So when you’ve selected your main Sky Q bundle you might well want to add one of these familiar packages…
Sky Movies +£17 extra a month
11 movies channels and 1000+ movies on demand
The biggest box office hits 12 month before online subscription services. Plus enjoy Sky Movies Disney, including the latest releases and all-time classics.
Sky Sports +£25.50 extra a month
7 dedicated sports channels
Including live coverage of the Barclays Premier League, Sky Bet Football League, domestic and international cricket, F1®, boxing, golf and many more of the biggest events in sport.
Sky Movies AND Sky Sports +£34.50 extra a month
How does that compare cost-wise to what’s available now?
Sky sent us the example of someone who already takes lots of services – they really love their TV. They might have the Sky+ Family Bundle, Sports, Movies and a Multiscreen subscription – total cost £87 a month. To upgrade to Sky Q Silver would only cost them an additional £1.50 a month, plus a one-off set-up and installation cost of £149.
As we said above, the nearest equivalent bundle to Sky Q in terms of content (range of channels, HD and Sky Box Sets) is the Family Bundle for £36.
Another example person who takes fewer services and has a lower overall monthly TV bill might prefer to upgrade to Sky Q, rather than Sky Q Silver. If they are currently were on the Sky+ Variety Bundle, and also have Sky Broadband, they’d currently pay £40 a month. To upgrade to Sky Q, it would cost them another £12 a month, plus a one-off set-up and installation fee of £149.
For Sky Q multiroom read Sky Q Mini
As well as the main Ultra HD box, you can have up to two 1080p Sky Q Mini boxes that doesn’t to connect to the dish (it uses your network to connect to the main box). Whether you can have one or two of these boxes depends on which main Sky Q box you have (one for the standard, two for Sky Q Silver. You can have up to two of these and also watch on up to two tablets at the same time as well (there’s a new Sky Q tablet and phone app to facilitate this which completely replaces Sky Go for Sky Q customers).
The Sky Q hub
There’s also a Sky Q hub, which is a new Sky Broadband router that also includes Powerline. You can use Sky Q with other broadband providers, but the Sky hub is an all-in-one solution.
If you use Sky Q with the Sky Q hub, then every Sky Q box also becomes a Wi-Fi hotspot (extender) meaning that you can have a stronger Wi-Fi network, too.
The new Sky Q EPG
The new EPG features My Q, which shows you recently watched stuff as well as a curated selection of things you might like.
Watch your box recordings on mobile devices
Q Sync enables you to also synchronise your recorded shows from your Sky Q box to your tablet – or your phone. These are encoded for your device by the main box on the fly.
New Sky remote
There’s also a new Bluetooth touch remote plus a powerful new search function so you can find anything from on demand, catch-up and recordings as well as get recommendations. Bizarrely, there’s also a non-touch remote available too. The Sky Q box also has a button on top so you can find your remote. Personally we don’t have a problem with lost remotes but we know people that do.
Voice search will launch in due course.
Streaming extras
Sky Q also boasts a few streaming extras such as YouTube, Spotify and AirPlay plus Bluetooth integration, but many streaming rivals already boast these options.
[Source:- t3]
