- Sky Go is an excellent streaming platform that lets you stream any content from Sky TV. There is no cost to stream content if you are a Sky TV user. With a vast database, you can search for anything that comes to your mind on your Amazon Fire devices like Fire TV 4K, Fire TV Cube and more.
- The free Sky Go Xbox One app lets you instantly watch Sky TV's vast coverage of movies, TV shows and sporting events from the comfort of your console. Best webcam: HD and 4K cams from just £.
- When will Sky go 4K? March 10, 2015 The past few weeks have seen various rumours aired as to when Sky UK, and/or Sky Germany, launch 4K/Ultra-HD services. Earlier in February a report in London’s Sunday Telegraph talked about Sky bringing its launch of 4K transmissions forward to this Spring.
- SKY TV fans can now tune in to some premium content via the refreshed Roku stick which now has more features at a very reasonable price. By David Snelling. 4K Ultra HD or 4K HDR.
Pendoo Android 10.0 TV Box, T95 Android TV Box 4GB RAM 32GB ROM Allwinner H616 Quad-core 64bit, Support 2.4G/5GHz Dual WiFi Bluetooth 6K/4K Ultra HD/ 3D/ H.265 Android Box.
The past few weeks have seen various rumours aired as to when Sky UK, and/or Sky Germany, launch 4K/Ultra-HD services. Earlier in February a report in London’s Sunday Telegraph talked about Sky bringing its launch of 4K transmissions forward to this Spring. There was no denial by Sky, but certainly no endorsement either.
Indeed, at the recent SES-organised 4K event in London, Chris Johns, Sky UK’s chief engineer/broadcast strategy, told delegates that he was not ruling out an OTT-type delivery of 4K content. But he also stated that “We want to know what we can fit on a single [satellite] transponder, should it be necessary. We’re not ruling anything out; we’re looking at it economically. The lower the price for distributing a piece of content, the better it is, obviously,” said Johns.
By and large, however, Johns argued strongly that Sky – and true Ultra-HD – was not quite ready. It was expecting better standards to emerge and these would deliver the material difference in viewing experience that Sky wanted.
Stephan Heimbecher, Sky Germany’s head of innovation & standards, and very much the public face of Sky Germany’s 4K tests and trials, admitted at a Stockholm conference on February 5th that technically they were ready to start transmissions but only once management had made the ‘Go’ decision.
However, he also said that a year from now “I am confident that further testing and improvements will take place where we will make further reductions in the size of the signal, and perhaps two years from now match today’s HDTV signal size, but delivering superb quality.”
In other words it could well be that between now and a year from now Sky Germany’s 4K signals will be on air!
Sky never – repeat, never – pre-announces any of its major news until it is fully ready
From all this one might conclude that Sky is ready for 4K, but not just yet. But it is also worth remembering that Sky never – repeat, never – pre-announces any of its major news until it is fully ready. Nobody, but nobody, would dare give too many hints as to Sky’s plans, either in the UK or in Germany or Italy.
In fact it will be near-impossible to ‘predict’ when Sky might move. But there are some compelling reasons to think that a Ultra-HD launch could be sooner than later. First, and most compelling, is the cash that Netflix and Amazon are now taking out from the market with their limited 4K offerings. With 200,000 4K sets now in the hands of viewers in the UK and Germany, these are a primary audience for Netflix/Amazon.
Then there’s the competitive threat from rival BT Sport. It has also been widely reported that BT Sport will launch some sort of service “this spring”. BT’s CEO Gavin Patterson has said: “This year our Media and Broadcast business unit is trialing 4K resolution technology, which promises a new era.” Moreover BT has tested all-4K Outside Broadcast units (as has Sky) in readiness for Ultra-HD transmissions.
Neil Huggins, head of occasional use services, BT Media and Broadcast, speaking last September, said: “We were the first to provide an HD capability, and the first to do 3D.”
The above problems set out the challenges for the broadcasters. But consumer “pull” (and vendor “push”) is happening in the real-world environment of the marketplace. The ownership of 4K sets is growing impressively in the UK and Germany at about 60,000 a month, and a probable total for this year of anything between 500,000 and 1m units in both countries.
That’s a market. Should Sky charge £5 or €5 a month in each market and attract just 50,000 subscribers, that’s an appealing sum of money. Rise that total to 200,000 and it’s a ton of cash. Take Sky’s UK and German most loyal supporters, soccer fans, and their predisposition to take Sky’s highest subscription tiers and you might have a very lucrative business.
A September subscription price rise announcement is almost a certainty and this could be coupled with an introduction of 4K
There’s another option for Sky: pubs and sports bars. Sky has in the past served projection units and large-screen TVs in bars in order to showcase its 3D services to popular acclaim and powerful word-of-mouth. There’s no reason why the same strategy couldn’t be employed to showcase 4K/UHD.
Finally, the £4 billion question mark as to the 2016-2019 soccer English Premier League is now settled, and Sky will want to monetise those increased costs. A September subscription price rise is a certainty and this could be coupled with an introduction of Ultra-HD.
Will it happen? The answer is firmly at the desk of Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch and he is keeping silent. On February 4th, speaking after Sky’s results statement, Darroch poured extremely cold water on the idea, saying: “Ultra HD is [to be determined] – it does really well on big screens, but less impactful on smaller screens. The jury is still out as to how big an idea it will be, we’re thinking about the box power, how we build into the software stack and the broadcast infrastructure that goes alongside that.”
Some might say that’s a definite “yes” and a strong suggestion, as always, that Sky will announce only when it is ready to announce, and probably a few days ahead of BT’s announcements…
Related posts:
More Blogs:
The 4K revolution has exploded in 2016 as UHD televisions are now affordable and streaming services such as Netflix offer up 4K movies and shows. Now the mighty Sky has its own selection of Ultra HD movies, TV shows and sports too, via the Sky Q Ultra HD service.
Sky began airing and streaming its 4K content on August 13 with the first Premier League football game of the season. Sky also added a selection of films and shows, available now to download and watch in UHD quality. That means a 3840×2160 resolution picture for connected compatible televisions and projectors.
But what’s actually available to watch in 4K now that the service is live for Sky Q Silver customers? And what 4K content does Sky have planned for the rest of 2016 and into 2017?
Read next: Best 4K Blu-ray players in 2016
What sports can I watch in 4K on Sky Q Ultra HD?
One of the big appeals of UHD on Sky has to be sports coverage. Sky already airs plenty of football so it has lots of experience in delivering the best shots, which will now be available in gory detail. See every facial expression on the players, every swear word uttered and all the action as close to being there as is technologically possible right now.
Sky has secured 124 Premier League football games which it will air in 4K UHD. That means that it will be broadcast live to your dish at 50 frames per second for super fast action captured clearly.
Sky has also announced that it will be airing the complete Formula One season in UHD 4K for 2017.
While the UHD Sports can be watched live and recorded there don’t appear to be any on demand offerings to download after the events.
What movies can I watch in 4K on Sky Q Ultra HD?
Sky Cinema is crammed full of flicks already in HD but they’re now joined with a selection of UHD 4K films, with plenty of Sky premieres in there. Sky says there are 70 movies available in UHD.
These films can be downloaded and streamed, presuming you have a decent internet connection – as they’re about 18GB a pop. That said you are able to start watching once a certain amount of the film is downloaded and it’ll just keep downloading the rest as you view, much like the current streaming-style system works for HD.
Films available right now for free in Sky Cinema are:
4k Sky Gold
Spectre, The Martian, Everest, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Fury, Pixels, Chappie, Terminator Genisys, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Spongebob Movie: Spongebob Out of Water, Talladega Nights, Top Five, The Wedding Ringer, Think Like a Man Too, No Good Deed, The Patriot, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, Project Almanac, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Groundhog Day, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Amistad, Annie, Angels & Demons and Captive.
Films available right now to buy or rent on Sky Store are:
The Revenant, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Zoolander 2, Risen, The Night Before, The Big Short, World War Z, Flight, Battle: Los Angeles, Shutter Island, Pineapple Express, Men In Black II, Hancock and Salt.
What TV shows can I watch in 4K on Sky Q Ultra HD?
Sky has also launched the Ultra HD offering with a selection of TV shows, mainly consisting of nature documentaries that really take full advantage of that stunning 4K picture quality.
There are also plenty of box sets available in UHD where the entire series is shown in high 4K quality.
Box sets available in UHD right now are:
Sky Go 4k Stream
The Blacklist, Fortitude, The Last Panthers, The Enfield Haunting, The Tunnel, The Tunnel: Sabotage, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies, David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum, David Attenborough’s Galapagos, Big Cats: An Amazing Family, Richard Hammond’s Jungle Quest, Behind Russia’s Frozen Curtain, Giant Sea Serpent: Meet the Myth, River Jaws: Monster Catfish, Secret Life of Pearls, Wild Namibia, Wild Sri Lanka, Strike Back: Project Dawn, Strike Back: Vengeance, Strike Back: Shadow Warfare and Strike Back: Legacy.
Minecraft Sky 4k
What can I watch in 4K on Sky Q Ultra HD? 4K movies, shows and channels coming soon?
Sky has said it will air the entire Formula One 2017 season in UHD. It has also promised five new dramas including The Young Pope starring Jude Law.
Also upcoming is The Trip To Spain starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year 2016 and Blur in concert.
4k Night Sky Wallpaper
Movies Sky mentioned as coming but that aren’t showing up for us in UHD yet include Jerry Maguire, Zoolander, The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man and Minority Report.
How do I setup Sky Q Ultra HD?
Firestick 4k Sky Go
Grab your Sky Remote and navigate to ‘Settings’. Then hit ‘Setup’ and then ‘Audio visual’ and choose 2,160p (UHD) and away you go. Ensure you have a 4K television or you won’t get the benefit of extra detail and hope your broadband is up to the challenge of streaming considerably more data.