Despite being almost 10 years old, millions of UK homes continue to use and love their Sky Q boxes. This satellite-powered device offers access to endless hours of live and on-demand content along with featuring an in-built hard drive that lets you store shows, sports events, and movies for as long as you want or until you tap the delete button.
Sky Q has been a rip-roaring success, but there are signs that its demise could be on the horizon. Head to Sky’s online store, and you’ll have trouble even finding this much-loved box, with the firm pushing new customers towards its streaming gadgets instead.
Sky Stream and the new Sky Glass Gen 2 TV are the devices the company wants you to buy and the push is clearly working with over 90 percent of new sales going to streaming rather than Sky Q.
It makes sense as that broadband-powered tech doesn’t require a dish to be drilled into homes by an engineer, is simple to DIY install and can easily be updated via software patches pushed out over the internet.
This ease of use for both consumers and Sky is a major driving force behind the growth of these products and it could put the Sky Q system under pressure.
“Ultimately, Sky would prefer to migrate all users onto its IP-based products, which in turn will lead to the end of Sky Q,” explained top analyst Paolo Pescatore to The Sun.
Another issue for Sky Q is that its current life has only been officially confirmed for another four years. Sky recently confirmed that it’s signed a new contract with SES – a provider that beams Sky content around the UK – to keep things running until at least 2029.
It’s unclear what will happen after that and if streaming can gain enough market share – although it seems Sky may have to commit to longer period once the current contract ends.
“It all depends on the success of migrating customers onto Sky OS and how quickly,” Pescatore added.
“For now it looks it will have to renew, but expect to see a plethora of punchy deals seeking to sway customers.”
During the recent Sky Glass Gen 2 launch event, the company told Express.co.uk that they were still fully committed to Sky Q and will continue to support and upgrade it. They also said they know how many customers still love the product despite its age.
However, it seems clear where Sky is heading and which products it would rather we have in our homes.
If you want to know more about the new Glass TV you can read our full Sky Glass Gen 2 review here.
Are you ready to ditch your Sky Q box and switch to streaming? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.