End of Now maybe in sight

[Enapace]

With Sky announcing this evening that the Sky Glass Puck is going to be available standalone later this year. I think it could mean that Now is on it's way out as at that point i'm not really sure what the benefit of Now will be over Sky Glass neither has a contract length. Yes Glass it's a buggy system at moment but it will be patched and lets be honest Now is a janky system depending on method you view it. But Glass is likely to be expanded on as time goes on i'm not sure Now will be. 

Unless they are going be charging like £200 for the Puck which I can't see them being able to do I think this will be my last year on the Now system. 

What are everyones thoughts on this development?

[gavs82008]

@Enapace 

Not at all, in my opinion I can see NOW soon being Sky branded channels only along with Peacock.

When Paramount+ launches I can see both MTV and Comedy Central leaving. 
Then at some point both Gold and National Geographic leaving too.

My hope is that there is some membership consolidation like a combined entertainment, cinema and sports as one. Obviously pricing would be key. 
Bare in mind this is just my thoughts. However when Discovery+ launched we ended up losing Discovery channel so it makes sense for Paramount to pull MTV and Comedy Central if they did. 

[Enapace]

@gavs82008 

Yes that could happen but would make the Sky Glass Puck even more interesting to me as Sky Movies is meant to include a Paramount Plus Membership on Sky Q/Glass. Not sure on Gold but it could leave I agree though dear. 

Maybe I should clarify but I like the idea of a Sky Glass Box which I can buy and just have a near full Sky Q Experience without a contract the only reason I have Now is at the moment it's the only way i can get Sky Atlantic and Sky Sports. It would be nice to have all the other channels that we don't get on Now as well.

@redchiz1

They only missing things are the Quantum Dot Display and Dolby Atmos 360 [They class built in bits to the TV as Sky Glass experience] as they are built into the TV else you get the full Sky Glass Experience but you could get those with a soundbar and a better quality Display. 

[SweetBlitz]

I doubt Now will disappear in next 5 years and I doubt satellite dishes will disappear in next 10 years.  The biggest issue with Sky over internet is lag on live sports.  The only way to counter this is cable, satellite or aerial.

Sky’s content has been disappearing in recent times with Disney and Amazon taking lots of rights.  I suspect that at some point in next few months with the cost of living crisis leading to a lot of cancelled subscriptions, Cinema and Entertainment will merge to provide direct competition to Netflix, Prime and Disney.   The main device for watching these channels on TV these days are the Fire Sticks  and there is no way that Sky/Now will make the same mistake of having their own proprietary hardware and lose out to all the other streamers.

I don’t see Sport merging with Cinema and Entertainment as it is where the profit comes from for Now TV. And few who just have Now TV for programming other than Sport won’t pay for it.  With Amazon the sport is a loss leader and generally the trials cover it.  Netflix and Disney don’t do sport. Yet.

[redchiz1]

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@SweetBlitz wrote:

The main device for watching these channels on TV these days are the Fire Sticks 

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That's an interesting claim, I have sometimes wondered what market share was like by device, what is your source?

[SweetBlitz]

Anecdotal and some guesswork.  Now sticks and boxes are no longer on sale and Roku take up in UK is low.  Fire sticks are more common than chromecast.  Even the host apps on TVs don’t always support Now TV as well as they could.

Also they get top billing on https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-devices-can-i-use-to-watch-now

I would guesstimate Fire sticks account for over 30% of the devices use to watch Now on a TV, but I don’t have the figures.  And it seems to be the choice of many forum members.

[schnapps]

There is a small section in this linked article (ignore the title heading) that BT have a deal in place for Sky to provide them the NOW service for up to 2030 and beyond.

Though i suppose Sky could take over the operation and support of NOW App software on BT Youview Boxes or drop the App support and only provide live linear channels via the BT TV Guide if NOW disappears.

My gut feeling is NOW is not going anywhere in the short / mid term.

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/bt-sport-eurosport-combined-service/ 

[RoyB]

@Enapace 

The Sky Puck is the internal gubbins of Sky Glass without the actual ‘Glass’ - the TV - so Sky can sell the service to people who want to keep their existing TVs.

The main differentiators of this from Sky Q are that it comes over the internet, not over a dish, doesn’t offer terrestrial channels and doesn’t record.

I don’t see anywhere that it is going to be on anything other than a long term (1 year and up) contract, with the various Sky bundles offered.

So the differentiator from Now will remain the Now contract-free month-to-month sales structure.

I think you are conjecturing that the Puck might have a contract-free sales structure for content; but even if it did, it would just put itself in contention with Roku devices and Amazon Fire devices, to say nothing of putting Sky, if Now didn’t run the Pucks, in direct contention with Now, rather than in the current oblique contention.

The Puck stand-alone is just to broaden Sky’s market for its Glass UI; it might impact Now a very little, and perhaps not at all, but it certainly won’t impact it a whole lot.

[Enapace]

@RoyB 

If you buy the Sky Glass TV Outright you can have a monthly contract for Entertainment Sports etc so why would they not do that for the Sky Glass standalone Puck it would be the same system. 

I don't think i'm being unrealistic there honestly I think Sky is clearly aiming itself to be content gatherer just look at their deals with Discovery, Apple, Disney and Paramount to bring there apps to there platform as come 2025 when they lose the HBO content they won't have any big Entertainment network or franchise anymore. 

So bearing that in mind I see it being very similar to Now

[RoyB]

@Enapace 

I can see what a Sky Glass TV would be if you cancelled the monthly Sky subscription, but what would a Puck be able to do if you cancelled it? £10 a month (or more, probably, ongoing) for a box that couldn’t do as much as a Roku or Fire stick for a one-off price of 3 to 5 months equivalence, at best?

[Enapace]

@RoyB 

I would be very surprised if they don't sell the Puck Box Outright they aren't going make you rent it if it's your main way to watch Sky Glass that would be crazy. You would be paying for a box similar to Firestick/Roku but you would be getting a way to able to do 4K Sky that would be the advantage plus a proper TV Channel selection things that Firestick/Roku can't do yes Glass is a flawed system as you can't record but it still ahead of a Firestick for me.

[RoyB]

@Enapace 

What price are Sky going to be able to sell a Puck for that isn’t going to make the people who have been paying £10 a month for one go ‘Hmmm….’?

But I can see that you envisage the standalone Puck as sitting in a sort of middle ground between Sky Glass and Now, where Sky Glass is already a sort of middle ground between Sky Q and Now.

Whereas I see the standalone Puck as Sky Glass without a Sky Glass TV.

It will all depend on what the deal is and what the pricing is; but I doubt if it will have much of an impact on Now.

[Enapace]

@RoyB 

They aren't paying £10 a month for the Puck but £10 for the Multiroom feature like how on NowTV you pay £5 a month for Multiroom basically with Boost. They charge you £50 for the Puck as an extra for Sky Glass if you have the TV at present. 

I don't see it as being a NowTV Sky Glass inbetween i see it as Sky Glass as that is what it will be as it will be identical to the Puck Boxes they use for Sky Glass and you don't lose out on anything with those boxes at all.

[redchiz1]

So presumably, with Sky Glass, you cannot access via other devices, unlike with Sky Q, or NOW?

[Hooba]

@redchiz1 I think current Sky Glass customers access the Sky channels through the SkyGo app - so whichever devices that app is available for. As an aside, SkyGo app is supposedly coming to AppleTV - provided the app works properly (esp 5.1 audio) on AppleTV I might go the Sky Glass (puck) route.

[redchiz1]

@Hooba I am not sure, I have just been looking at the spec for Sky Go and Sky Go Extra and there is no mention of Sky Glass on there? And some disgruntled customer comments on Google suggest likewise.

[gavs82008]

@redchiz1 

My understanding is that some point this year Sky Go will become available on Apple TV and Amazon fire sticks. 

@Enapace @Hooba However from what I remember the Sky Go picture was 720p with stereo.

[redchiz1]

Interesting @gavs82008 and muddying the waters even more! 

[gavs82008]

@redchiz1 

No idea where I got Amazon fire sticks from, maybe wishful thinking.

https://www.skygroup.sky/article/sky-to-bring-apple-tv-to-sky-glass-and-sky-q-customers

This press release from last year indicated “first half of 2022” for Sky Go on Apple TV devices.

[Hooba]

I think SkyGo currently only available on phones/tablets/PC/Mac - so may explain why only currently 720p and stereo. 

You'd think if they are going to make SkyGo available on AppleTV then they might charge extra for 'big screen' and 5.1? Who knows. Think you can subscribe to Sky Channels from within the SkyGo app without any other sort of contract with Sky. If they had a HD 5.1 SkyGo app on AppleTV I'd probably go that route other than using a Sky Glass puck. 

It seems a bit like lunacy (so might well be the case) for Sky to put out a 720p stereo AppleTv SkyGo app, when even nowTV does 1080p and stereo on AppleTV ....

Either way, Sky Glass through a puck won't work for me unless I can access on other devices in 1080p and 5.1.

[redchiz1]

Sky Go requires a Sky subscription, it is not available otherwise and the content available reflects the package you are on. Whether it works with Sky Glass I am still none the wiser?