Sky uk end service 2027 or 2028

[Analoguesat]

Ahah! Sky recontracted transponder capacity with SES less than 2 years ago with the contract extending capacity until the end of 2028 So our tv via satellite delivery is safe for at least the next 4 years.

SES’s satellites continue to deliver SD, HD and UHD content for Sky UK’s subscribers

Luxembourg, 3 May 2022 – Audiences across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland will continue to enjoy their favourite premium content via Sky UK, as the leading pay-TV operator extended multiple transponder contracts with SES. This renewal secures an additional contract backlog of approximately EUR 84 million, building on the EUR 90 million capacity agreement signed between the two companies in 2021, with contract durations up to end 2028.

Full story:

Sky UK Renews Capacity with SES in Latest Multi-Year Deal

SES’s satellites continue to deliver SD, HD and UHD content for Sky UK’s subscribers

www.ses.com

 

[cokeaddict]

Ahah! Sky recontracted transponder capacity with SES less than 2 years ago with the contract extending capacity until the end of 2028 So our tv via satellite delivery is safe for at least the next 4 years.




Full story:

Sky UK Renews Capacity with SES in Latest Multi-Year Deal

SES’s satellites continue to deliver SD, HD and UHD content for Sky UK’s subscribers

www.ses.com

Doesn't stop them reducing the channels available or only adding new ones to streaming services only though.

 

[Analoguesat]

Fair point - no it doesnt stop Sky gradually running the service down in the meantime, but we now know the Sky UK multi channel service will exist in some form until at least the end of 2028.

 

[Nalleman]

Ghad, I'll be clinging on to the last available satellite channel, even if it means learning German. IPTV is unreliable at best though I do see the attraction of its alleged convenience. Until ALL of the UK has a fast, stable Internet connection, I don't see Sky disappearing from our skies just yet...

Another good thing about the German "way" - you can watch the ARD Mediathek (including the ZDF and die Dritten versions) which is the equivalent of BBC iPlayer without restrictions.
Works excellent on a receiver aimed for this purpose. I use it a lot!

 

[Fisty McB]

How many satellite-based subscribers does Sky have at present? I have in the back of my mind a figure of 10 million plus back in the 2010's but I'm not sure what the more recent figures are, and a quick search doesn't give many clues. I'm going to estimate that getting all such subscribers over to their own streaming platforms (badged either "Sky or "Now") over the next 4-5 years will not be easy, even if getting something like 5 million or so analogue satellite subscribers over to digital in the late 90's/early 00's was pulled off back then in the space of ~3 years.

What I find interesting in the early reports is Sky saying that their Stream service is largely being taken up by those that have never been a Sky subscriber before, and that only around a quarter of signups to Stream are conversions from the satellite platform which might give them a long-term headache on that front regarding potential refuseniks (maybe in 3-4 years time we'll see Sky offer Sky Q subscribers some very good deals to switch to Stream so that they can pull the plug on satellite earlier), but as for "they can't pull the service until every last person has giga-speed broadband available", I don't see that argument washing much for Sky as a purely commercial operator. Something like 97-98% of the UK can already get 30 Mbps download speeds via landline broadband services, a speed that is more than capable of handling several HD streams per household, and that spare 2-3% (likely be under 2% by 2028) won't be of a major concern to Sky as the cost of servicing such subscribers will likely be too high (maybe a much reduced service compared to the current lineup at best) and in most cases that small percentage can be served with broadband via an alternative technology. That 2-3% will arguably be more of a concern for Freesat, given the general PSB commitments there, and the cost per viewer base on that.

 

[cokeaddict]

How many satellite-based subscribers does Sky have at present? I have in the back of my mind a figure of 10 million plus back in the 2010's but I'm not sure what the more recent figures are, and a quick search doesn't give many clues. I'm going to estimate that getting all such subscribers over to their own streaming platforms (badged either "Sky or "Now") over the next 4-5 years will not be easy, even if getting something like 5 million or so analogue satellite subscribers over to digital in the late 90's/early 00's was pulled off back then in the space of ~3 years.

What you say makes sense, but........

If there is no satellites up there to provide the service, then the subscribers only have 2 choices, they switch or they go without.

 

[Nalleman]

How many satellite-based subscribers does Sky have at present? I have in the back of my mind a figure of 10 million plus back in the 2010's but I'm not sure what the more recent figures are, and a quick search doesn't give many clues. I'm going to estimate that getting all such subscribers over to their own streaming platforms (badged either "Sky or "Now") over the next 4-5 years will not be easy, even if getting something like 5 million or so analogue satellite subscribers over to digital in the late 90's/early 00's was pulled off back then in the space of ~3 years.

What I find interesting in the early reports is Sky saying that their Stream service is largely being taken up by those that have never been a Sky subscriber before, and that only around a quarter of signups to Stream are conversions from the satellite platform which might give them a long-term headache on that front regarding potential refuseniks (maybe in 3-4 years time we'll see Sky offer Sky Q subscribers some very good deals to switch to Stream so that they can pull the plug on satellite earlier), but as for "they can't pull the service until every last person has giga-speed broadband available", I don't see that argument washing much for Sky as a purely commercial operator. Something like 97-98% of the UK can already get 30 Mbps download speeds via landline broadband services, a speed that is more than capable of handling several HD streams per household, and that spare 2-3% (likely be under 2% by 2028) won't be of a major concern to Sky as the cost of servicing such subscribers will likely be too high (maybe a much reduced service compared to the current lineup at best) and in most cases that small percentage can be served with broadband via an alternative technology. That 2-3% will arguably be more of a concern for Freesat, given the general PSB commitments there, and the cost per viewer base on that.

Speaking of landline - how does the future for landline look in the UK?

In Sweden closing of traditional landlines started years ago.
At the end of 2026 ALL traditional landlines remaining in Sweden will be closed.
Remains fibre and mobile connections for internet access.

Fibre will never cover every household (including mine) so for many 4G and 5G will be the only option.

 

[Analoguesat]

In the UK the traditional landline service is expected to end sometime round 2025

 

[Fisty McB]

Speaking of landline - how does the future for landline look in the UK?

In Sweden closing of traditional landlines started years ago.
At the end of 2026 ALL traditional landlines remaining in Sweden will be closed.
Remains fibre and mobile connections for internet access.

Fibre will never cover every household (including mine) so for many 4G and 5G will be the only option.

(TL;DR at the bottom)

The major national landline phone network is under a business group called Openreach, which is an arm of British Telecom, which serves all of the UK (except for the city & surrounds of Kingston-upon-Hull for historical reasons).

At present, you can no longer get a new traditional "analogue" phone landline (POTS) in the UK via Openreach except under some very specific circumstances. All new voice traffic otherwise has to be delivered by VoIP, this is set up either via your ISP or you can do so via a third-party should you wish to do so.

31 December 2025 is the intended shut-down date for the analogue POTS network on Openreach - this includes landlines that have no current broadband service but do have an analogue phoneline.

Note that the above date (31/12/25) only applies to shutting down the analogue phone service - it does not, contrary to what some others having been saying, mean that all copper landline services are being withdrawn. If from January 2026 the only option at the time for Openreach to connect you with an internet service is via a copper pair (either ADSL2+ or VDSL2) they will continue to do so until they are able to upgrade you to a Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) line. It's just that an analogue telephone will no longer work with it in its current form - it'll have to be transferred to VoIP. There's no firm date for Openreach to shut down its copper pair network, if I was to guess I'd say it'll be around 2030, sooner rather than later.

The long term intention from Openreach is that almost all premises currently served by copper pair landlines will be served by a fibre FTTP line - the exceptions will be those premises that would be too costly to serve under the current Universal Service Obligation's spending limits per premises, they will either have to stump up the money to connect to the network (partly subsidised by the maximum cost of the USO subsidy) or have to use other means to connect to the internet. Once this conversion from copper pair to FTTP is complete, Openreach are expected to shut down most of their phone exchanges in the UK as they'll be redundant at this point, with somewhere in the region of 100-500 being retained AFAIK from over 4000 - some of the exchange areas that already have high FTTP availability already no longer sell copper connections (they are given the label "stop sell") to most customers served by them.

The biggest landline network outside of Openreach is Virgin Media's cable network. AFAIK their "landline" phone service is now being provided as VoIP through their DOCSIS cable router where their HFC network exists, and via a similar method in areas where they now either run fibre to the premises (using a system called Radio Frequency over Glass or RFoG, or using the alt-net Nexfibre's growing network where they provide internet & a streaming service over it similar to Sky Stream - though unlike Sky Stream, Virgin Media will limit you to using either their own or Nexfibre's networks only).

For those premises that may never get an FTTP connection, other methods will need to be looked at, ranging from some current models like Fixed Wireless Networks or the use of 4G/5G mobile networks (where available), to the use of satellite broadband, either geostationary or LEO like Starlink.

In terms of Gigabit & FTTP availability in the UK, from thinkbroadband.com (Jan 2024 figures)...

UK Total - 80.8% with at least gigabit availability, 62.5% able to obtain a gigabit connection via FTTP.
England - 81.7% & 62.1% respectively
Scotland - 73.5% & 58.7% respectively
Wales - 69.0% & 61.3% respectively
Northern Ireland - 94.9% & 94.3% respectively

TL;DR - analogue phone network is being shut down in the UK on a provisional date of 31st Dec 2025, and you can no longer get such a new analogue phone service ordered - however you can get a new copper pair ordered in some places for internet service, it's just the line won't have a dial tone if you plug it in to the phone socket in the wall.

 

[rolfw]

In the UK the traditional landline service is expected to end sometime round 2025

I reckon there'll be a big market in cheap and second hand mobiles whan the landlines stop, particularly for elderly people who don't want broadband. I use virtual landline now, comes staright to my mobile for £8.95 per month

 

[PaulR]

I reckon there'll be a big market in cheap and second hand mobiles whan the landlines stop, particularly for elderly people who don't want broadband. I use virtual landline now, comes staright to my mobile for £8.95 per month

Were you able to retain your old analogue landline number?

 

[Analoguesat]

Out here in the sticks near Kelso there is no date for fttp being enabled on our exchange. Quite a few of the others in the area have been done. We have fttc interent which limps along at about 7meg, the distance from the house to the cabinet being over a mile. We have a traditional phone number allocated to the line, but we never use it - there isnt even a phone plugged into the line. I couldnt tell you what the number is.

 

[Fisty McB]

I reckon there'll be a big market in cheap and second hand mobiles whan the landlines stop, particularly for elderly people who don't want broadband. I use virtual landline now, comes staright to my mobile for £8.95 per month

For those from 2026 that still want a landline phone but whom have no interest in general Internet access, Openreach have a special 512 Kbit data rate line provision for such lines to carry VoIP services though I'm not aware of anyone but BT offering this right now (I'm sure there is but I haven't found them yet!) I'm sure in these circumstances you could plug an ethernet cable into the router and surf the net on a laptop but while 0.5 Mbit was great 20 years ago, it would be quite painful these days - and you could forget any streaming better than 240p {maybe 360p at a pinch).

Alternately, some ISPs are phasing out voice calling support, not bothering to have their own VoIP service - Plusnet are the biggest of the main ones that are doing so.

 

[Channel Hopper]

(TL;DR at the bottom)

The major national landline phone network is under a business group called Openreach, which is an arm of British Telecom, which serves all of the UK (except for the city & surrounds of Kingston-upon-Hull for historical reasons).

At present, you can no longer get a new traditional "analogue" phone landline (POTS) in the UK via Openreach except under some very specific circumstances. All new voice traffic otherwise has to be delivered by VoIP, this is set up either via your ISP or you can do so via a third-party should you wish to do so.

31 December 2025 is the intended shut-down date for the analogue POTS network on Openreach - this includes landlines that have no current broadband service but do have an analogue phoneline.

Note that the above date (31/12/25) only applies to shutting down the analogue phone service - it does not, contrary to what some others having been saying, mean that all copper landline services are being withdrawn. If from January 2026 the only option at the time for Openreach to connect you with an internet service is via a copper pair (either ADSL2+ or VDSL2) they will continue to do so until they are able to upgrade you to a Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) line. It's just that an analogue telephone will no longer work with it in its current form - it'll have to be transferred to VoIP. There's no firm date for Openreach to shut down its copper pair network, if I was to guess I'd say it'll be around 2030, sooner rather than later.

The long term intention from Openreach is that almost all premises currently served by copper pair landlines will be served by a fibre FTTP line - the exceptions will be those premises that would be too costly to serve under the current Universal Service Obligation's spending limits per premises, they will either have to stump up the money to connect to the network (partly subsidised by the maximum cost of the USO subsidy) or have to use other means to connect to the internet. Once this conversion from copper pair to FTTP is complete, Openreach are expected to shut down most of their phone exchanges in the UK as they'll be redundant at this point, with somewhere in the region of 100-500 being retained AFAIK from over 4000 - some of the exchange areas that already have high FTTP availability already no longer sell copper connections (they are given the label "stop sell") to most customers served by them.

The biggest landline network outside of Openreach is Virgin Media's cable network. AFAIK their "landline" phone service is now being provided as VoIP through their DOCSIS cable router where their HFC network exists, and via a similar method in areas where they now either run fibre to the premises (using a system called Radio Frequency over Glass or RFoG, or using the alt-net Nexfibre's growing network where they provide internet & a streaming service over it similar to Sky Stream - though unlike Sky Stream, Virgin Media will limit you to using either their own or Nexfibre's networks only).

For those premises that may never get an FTTP connection, other methods will need to be looked at, ranging from some current models like Fixed Wireless Networks or the use of 4G/5G mobile networks (where available), to the use of satellite broadband, either geostationary or LEO like Starlink.

In terms of Gigabit & FTTP availability in the UK, from thinkbroadband.com (Jan 2024 figures)...

UK Total - 80.8% with at least gigabit availability, 62.5% able to obtain a gigabit connection via FTTP.
England - 81.7% & 62.1% respectively
Scotland - 73.5% & 58.7% respectively
Wales - 69.0% & 61.3% respectively
Northern Ireland - 94.9% & 94.3% respectively

TL;DR - analogue phone network is being shut down in the UK on a provisional date of 31st Dec 2025, and you can no longer get such a new analogue phone service ordered - however you can get a new copper pair ordered in some places for internet service, it's just the line won't have a dial tone if you plug it in to the phone socket in the wall.

Allegedly, British Telecom will have to pay out millions to refund people that have a dial telephone which they have been charging £50 per annum once the analogue services have been turned off.

 

[LateAdopter]

According to a news item from Mark Jackson (ispreview) BT are developing a service called "SOTAP for analogue" that will provide an analogue phone connection, including voltages, without an exchange line connection.

 

[rodscha]

Another good thing about the German "way" - you can watch the ARD Mediathek (including the ZDF and die Dritten versions) which is the equivalent of BBC iPlayer without restrictions.
Works excellent on a receiver aimed for this purpose. I use it a lot!

Can you access the German mediathek from outside Germany? you,in Sweden for example?

 

[Channel Hopper]

According to a news item from Mark Jackson (ispreview) BT are developing a service called "SOTAP for analogue" that will provide an analogue phone connection, including voltages, without an exchange line connection.

I believe it has already been launched, but is a replacement device for older handsets.

edit - SOTAP Launched

Any additional voltage equipment at the property of the consumer may allow tone dialing to continue, but not pulse unless it is converted into the former.

 

[Lazarus]

Had Fixed Wireless Access Broadband plus VOIP with both Voipfone and Sipgate for over a decade. Utterly reliable and inexpensive.

 

[dvdfilm]

Ahah! Sky recontracted transponder capacity with SES less than 2 years ago with the contract extending capacity until the end of 2028 So our tv via satellite delivery is safe for at least the next 4 years.




Full story:

Sky UK Renews Capacity with SES in Latest Multi-Year Deal

SES’s satellites continue to deliver SD, HD and UHD content for Sky UK’s subscribers

www.ses.com

Yes but this still is relative to the current fleet of Astra 2.
What I was trying to find on the web, was news about SES ordering new satellites to replace them, but can't find any.

 

[Nalleman]

Can you access the German mediathek from outside Germany? you,in Sweden for example?

Yes it works fine with VU+ DUO2 and VU+ DUO 4K SE.