The main players in the hotly contested UK media scene continue to roll the dice. Sky s inevitable move into UHD this summer is almost a sideshow compared to the emphasis the company has put on mobile and streaming services and technologies. In its most significant revamp in a decade the broadcaster is unleashing a number of products and initiatives to combat the OTT threat from Amazon and Netflix and to ward off UK pay-TV rivals BT Group and Virgin Media.
Chiefly, they include Sky Q, the much anticipated new set top box which (in its premium Silver version) permits users to watch TV on multiple screens around the home and on two tablets at the same time. Sky calls it Fluid Viewing and will be augmented later this year with the ability to watch recorded or live shows synced to a mobile device outside the home.
This has necessitated the renegotiation by Sky of contracts with its major rights holders including with HBO and Showtime in a new multi-year deal for license to its entire content library exclusively across Sky s territories, in UK, Germany, Austria and Italy. As important, it means Amazon and Netflix can t get access to programming like the new Twin Peaks series. That feat was only possible because of Sky's scale and continuing growth claimed Sky s Chief Strategy Officer, Mai Fyfield, in The Telegraph. However, agreement has not been reached with Sky s main content partner, the BBC.
Unlike Virgin Media and BT, Sky has declined to give Netflix a place on its platform.
Other new Sky products include an upgraded Now TV service, coming later this year, as a means of offering a selection of Sky s programming to consumers who don t want a pay TV subscription. Fyfield suggests that offering entry level packages to Sky entertainment has helped the broadcast grow its customers over the past year (adding 205,000 in the 6 months to December 2015), in contrast to the heavyweight subs demanded by pay TV operators in the US which have faced a year of continued cord cutting.
This year, possibly as early as the spring, Sky will launch a mobile service carried over the O2 UK network. This will give it the quad play of home phone, mobile, TV and broadband services for bundling into a single package (Sky already has an on demand mobile TV service, Sky Go, with more than 6 million customers).
Doing this will pitch Sky head to head in the UK market with the existing quad play of Virgin Media, and Talk Talk and now BT Group, following its acquisition of mobile services operator EE for £12.5 billion from Deutsche Telekom and Orange.
While the BT/EE move reduces the number of mobile players in the UK to five, a mooted takeover by CK Hutchison s Three of Telefonica s O2 UK could see the market cut further.
The £10.25 billion ( 13.5 billion) bid is opposed by British regulator Ofcom, which argues that four rival mobile operators are required to protect consumers. It is urging European authorities to block it.
BT meanwhile announced it had netted 97,000 new customers to its BT Sport service pulled in by exclusive Champions League games although it will take a long time for its 1.4 million total subscribers to compete with anything like that of Sky s 12.3 million UK retail customers (Sky also has over 4 million in both Germany and Italy).
Further good news for BT was its award of a £100 million seven year deal to provide the BBC with broadband infrastructure. Operated by BT's global media services operation, BT Media and Broadcast, the network will link all the BBC's UK sites, including 21 broadcast centres and local radio stations, and carry its entire video, audio, data, telephone and broadband services.
The BBC says that the technology will have the capacity to allow it to more easily trial UHD and 360-degree video. Meanwhile, BT and Sky continue to trial virtual reality, with BT trialling an immersive experience at the NBA Global Games at the O2 arena in January with further VR tests planned.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
The main players in the hotly contested UK media scene continue to roll the dice. Sky s inevitable move into UHD this summer is almost a sideshow compared to the emphasis the company has put on mobile and streaming services and technologies. In its most significant revamp in a decade the broadcaster is unleashing a number of products and initiatives to combat the OTT threat from Amazon and Netflix and to ward off UK pay-TV rivals BT Group and Virgin Media.
