Is satellite TV soon to be a thing of the past?

[Howardh]

If it's not on its way out already?

Thinking with most (sadly not all) of the population having access to fast broadband, and getting used to using apps such as Netflix, Youtube, Amazon TV and such, why would they continue with Sky satellite when it's "sister" NowTV has upped it's game? Example, NowTV is available in 1080p, 4k is on the way I'm led to believe, you can now access BT sports via a Now stick/box, and also access Sky Sport's red button channels on certain devices - previously impossible. Of course one major advantage is you can subscribe without contract, so finish when your month's up.

If Now was supposed to be the deliberately cheapskate version of Sky, for those who simply don't want a dish, with 720p picture, continuous buffering and dropping out/reloading, and limited channels; has that now all changed - maybe Sky are following public demand and moving towards streaming?

Of course satellite TV is a must for those in areas of poor reception and very slow broadband so must stay for many years yet, but as digital TV replaced analogue, will on-line replace satellite, and how soon?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes, I'd say streaming is the future and broadcast television generally will go away in relatively short order, most likely with all viewing being on demand rather than on sequential channels other than probably rolling news.

Radio probably less so, though I mostly listen by streaming that these days!

 

[Howardh]

Yes, I'd say streaming is the future and broadcast television generally will go away in relatively short order, most likely with all viewing being on demand rather than on sequential channels other than probably rolling news.

Radio probably less so, though I mostly listen by streaming that these days!

Radio is interesting as the basic model hasn't changed, FM/AM. Sure there's DAB and that's now in most people's cars, but I listen to internet radio 95% of my listening hours, which includes in the car as my mobile goes through the radio (by cable, the old fashioned way!).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Radio is interesting as the basic model hasn't changed, FM/AM. Sure there's DAB and that's now in most people's cars, but I listen to internet radio 95% of my listening hours, which includes in the car as my mobile goes through the radio (by cable, the old fashioned way!).

Yeah, my car has DAB and so I use it there, but I think DAB overall is a bit of a "Rabbit phone" type thing in being a technology that is unlikely to be around for very long because streaming will supercede it.

Notably I listen to a lot of Radio 4 (which is more like TV in being programme based rather than continuous) and that is always podcasts.

 

[najaB]

Is satellite TV soon to be a thing of the past?

Nope. It's the cheapest way to distribute content over a large distributed area, not to mention that Internet connections aren't universally able to support high definition and 4K content. For many areas the only way to get that kind of bandwidth is... by satellite.

 

[SargeNpton]

The number of times that I've seen TV interviews with remote guests over the last five months have suffered from dropouts due to internet bandwidth problems (and similar for video conferences at work) suggests that the infrastructure in the UK is nowhere near reliable enough for all satellite TV to suddenly transfer to internet streaming.

 

[GusB]

There are some places in the country that struggle to get a terrestrial TV signal, let alone a broadband connection that can support streaming. I think it will be with us for some time yet.

 

[Ianno87]

Beats me why you'd pay £40-60+ pet month for a Sky subscription when you can get all of Netflix, Prime, NowTV, Disney Plus etc for a fraction of that price.

 

[najaB]

Beats me why you'd pay £40-60+ pet month for a Sky subscription when you can get all of Netflix, Prime, NowTV, Disney Plus etc for a fraction of that price.

Not everyone's broadband connection can handle HD, never mind 4K. Many struggle to get two SD streams at the same time.

 

[Kingspanner]

Back in the day with no cable and no terrestrial broadcast channels available, satellite was the only way to distribute more content over and above often state operated channels in Europe.

Not everyone can have a dish on their building for a variety of reasons, and not everyone has the line of sight. Oh and certainly in the analogue days large parts of the UK were outside the useable footprint of the satellite. And you could only watch/record one channel at once and not if it was raining

At one time we had British Satellite Broadcasting (who remembers the "Squarial"?)as well as Sky, until they merged. Sky went to digital transmission and their dishes got smaller and they got into bed with the Premier League. Much later in the cable era Virgin and BT joined the fray.

Satellite is good if you haven't got good cable. If you have good cable it blows having a dish out of the water.

What we have now are three main players feeding you each others content and those of traditional broadcasters via either satellite or cable, plus a few services left on terrestrial broadcast. Sky TV happen to broadcast by satellite but they are by no means bound to that https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42815603 and you can get loads of their stuff by paying other providers for it and using their cables.

What if Sky moved mainly online, how long would they maintain satellite broadcasts for remote uncabled subscribers? Until the satellite has a catastrophic failure?

 

[cactustwirly]

Beats me why you'd pay £40-60+ pet month for a Sky subscription when you can get all of Netflix, Prime, NowTV, Disney Plus etc for a fraction of that price.

For the sports channels for one...

 

[GusB]

There is Freesat for those who don't want to pay a subscription. You pay the set-up costs and that's it.

 

[radamfi]

Sky were supposed to be offering the full Sky package using broadband and no dish about 2 years ago and already offer it in Italy and Austria.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2020 ==

Yeah, my car has DAB and so I use it there, but I think DAB overall is a bit of a "Rabbit phone" type thing in being a technology that is unlikely to be around for very long because streaming will supercede it.

Notably I listen to a lot of Radio 4 (which is more like TV in being programme based rather than continuous) and that is always podcasts.

The radio industry likes DAB in preference to streaming because there is less competition. You may have a choice of about 150 stations on DAB/DAB+ in urban areas but there is a virtually unlimited number of streaming stations to choose from. Obviously you can use your connect your phone to the car audio system and play streaming stations that way and some cars come with internet radio built in.

Not all countries use DAB/DAB+, for example USA and Canada. Ireland's commercial radio stations weren't interested (they don't want the competition) and so RTE are supposed to be giving up on DAB as a consequence.

 

[najaB]

Sky were supposed to be offering the full Sky package using broadband and no dish about 2 years ago and already offer it in Italy and Austria.

That will be an addition rather than a replacement - mainly aimed at people who can't have a dish (e.g. flat dwellers without a south-facing aspect, people in conservation areas).

 

[Condor7]

Beats me why you'd pay £40-60+ pet month for a Sky subscription when you can get all of Netflix, Prime, NowTV, Disney Plus etc for a fraction of that price.

Netflix costs £11.99 a month with 4K or £8.99 for HD, Amazon Prime is £7.99 a month, Now TV is £7.99 a month, £11.99 if you want Sky Cinema, and Disney+ is £5.99 a month, and even then you get no where near the channels Sky gives you.
I have the full Sky package which includes Netflix at a discounted rate and Disney+ and yes it costs me £60+ a month but that also includes Sky Sports.

So paying individually is hardly a fraction of the cost and not as many channels anyway.

 

[Bantamzen]

I haven't had satellite for years, cable / fibre all the way for me. I don't miss the severe weather warnings when the clouds would roll in and the signal fall off a cliff...

 

[najaB]

I haven't had satellite for years, cable / fibre all the way for me. I don't miss the severe weather warnings when the clouds would roll in and the signal fall off a cliff...

If rain causes your signal to disappear someone's not done their link budget correctly (ie. it's been done on the cheap). The only time you should have environmentally driven signal drop off is (a) snow on the dish; or (b) during eclipse season.

 

[ainsworth74]

If rain causes your signal to disappear someone's not done their link budget correctly (ie. it's been done on the cheap). The only time you should have environmentally driven signal drop off is (a) snow on the dish; or (b) during eclipse season.

I'm assuming that's something that the consumer cannot fix themselves? It doesn't happen often but we do occasionally lose signal when there's very bad weather overhead. Of course back in the "good old days" when Sky was still analogue rather than digital you could continue watching but the picture quality just got more and more "snowy" as we described it

 

[Bantamzen]

If rain causes your signal to disappear someone's not done their link budget correctly (ie. it's been done on the cheap). The only time you should have environmentally driven signal drop off is (a) snow on the dish; or (b) during eclipse season.

This was 20 odd years ago to be fair, but in those days heavy snow was a fairly common event and as my house & dish were exposed to the westerlies that used to blow the blumming stuff sideways down the valley it wasn't a surprise!

 

[BluePenguin]

Beats me why you'd pay £40-60+ pet month for a Sky subscription when you can get all of Netflix, Prime, NowTV, Disney Plus etc for a fraction of that price.

Unless you are football fan or need any specific channels then Freesat is fine for anyone that doesn’t want to pay for a monthly subscription.

We used to have it before Sky and only changed because we wanted the box sets and a few other channels not available on Freesat. Streaming services could never fully replace satellite TV for us although we do use them a lot. Flipping through the guide and browsing whats on is the norm for us. Where as trying to find something that everyone wants to watch on Netflix is very difficult

However streaming services certainly are a TV replacement for people who prefer to stream series after series as opposed to watching proper programmes live

 

[najaB]

I'm assuming that's something that the consumer cannot fix themselves? It doesn't happen often but we do occasionally lose signal when there's very bad weather overhead. Of course back in the "good old days" when Sky was still analogue rather than digital you could continue watching but the picture quality just got more and more "snowy" as we described it

Depends on how techy you are. You can self-install a larger dish if you're reasonably handy with power tools and willing to spend a little bit of time getting the dish aiming just right.

 

[ainsworth74]

Depends on how techy you are. You can self-install a larger dish if you're reasonably handy with power tools and willing to spend a little bit of time getting the dish aiming just right.

Hmm, scaling a ladder up the side of the house to use power tools? I think my sense of self-preservation is probably to great

 

[radamfi]

Streaming services could never fully replace satellite TV for us although we do use them a lot.

If you mean "on demand" then yes, however technically all linear channels that you currently get (and more) could be delivered through your broadband provider. In other countries this is quite common however in the UK we generally rely on satellite and terrestrial delivery. BT TV supplies its subscription channels through broadband but relies on Freeview for free channels.

Obviously there are illegal IPTV services that offer hundreds of channels from throughout the world.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You don't really need linear channels if you're streaming - just a library of programmes. Only rolling news and radio needs to be linear.

I no longer have an aerial plugged in and now only watch TV on demand via the players using an Amazon stick.

 

[Cowley]

Hmm, scaling a ladder up the side of the house to use power tools? I think my sense of self-preservation is probably to great

You’re talking about every day of my working life there!

 

[radamfi]

You don't really need linear channels if you're streaming - just a library of programmes. Only rolling news and radio needs to be linear.

Sport as well.

It sounds logical for entertainment not to need to be on linear TV, however there is something about channel surfing that people just like. Broadcasters put their most important programmes on at certain times in the evening when people are likely to see them. Without such a shop window, it is likely a lot of programmes won't get an audience. In theory Now TV and BT TV could just be on demand, yet they also carry the corresponding linear channels. Even the BBC, who have been the biggest champions of providing on demand content, including putting entire series online before being shown on TV, are now considering bringing back BBC Three as a linear channel.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Sport as well.

True, but not in the same way - it only needs to be being broadcast while the sport is actually on. The chat about it and various other non-live stuff can be in a programme library.

 

[Geezertronic]

If my calculations are correct, NowTV would cost me £63.97 p/m for the Entertainment, Cinema, and Sports pack. There's no mention of the ITV channels being available to stream live via NowTV, not sure about the BBC channels either

 

[Bletchleyite]

If my calculations are correct, NowTV would cost me £63.97 p/m for the Entertainment, Cinema, and Sports pack. There's no mention of the ITV channels being available to stream live via NowTV, not sure about the BBC channels either

Why would you want to stream them via NowTV when you can just use their respective Players?

 

[Geezertronic]

Why would you want to stream them via NowTV when you can just use their respective Players?

Call me old fashioned but I like all of my eggs in one basket On the Sky box, I have access to all of the channels live and access to Netflix and the catchup/streaming services. If I moved to NowTV, I presume I would have to use the NowTV stick and then the individual Players (if my TV has them, I'd need to look tbh)