PRESS RELEASE
- Catch Up TV gives Sky customers even more flexibility
- New Sky+HD 2TB box provides more personal storage
- New ways to interact with TV shows through the Sky+ iPad App
Sky+, Britain's most popular personal video recorder, is getting even bigger and better with the launch this week of a brand new Catch Up TV service, more personal storage and new ways for customers to interact with their favourite TV shows.
The wave of new features marks the latest stage in the ongoing development of Sky+, which is now enjoyed in over nine million homes - more than all of the other competing pay TV services added together. In the last two years, Sky+ has introduced TV on demand, hundreds of the latest DVD releases to rent through Sky Store and a new EPG making it easier to find what to watch. More than a decade after launch, Sky+ was heralded by T3 magazine this month as retaining its place as ‘King of the TV services jungle'. Last month alone, Sky+ generated more than 1.2 billion sessions of time-shifted viewing as customers took control of their own TV schedule.
Catch Up TV
From today, Sky+ is giving customers even more flexibility by adding a new 7-day Catch Up TV section to its On Demand* service. Customers will be able to keep up to date with their favourite Sky shows and also get programmes from ITV Player and Demand 5. With BBC iPlayer coming this autumn and 4oD arriving in early 2013, the Catch Up service will keep getting better, with programmes from the most popular free-to-air and pay channels all seamlessly integrated into the Sky+ experience. Sky's On Demand service also includes access to box sets such as Mad Men, An Idiot Abroad and Mad Dogs available at no extra charge to Sky customers.
Everything is separated into simple categories so it is easy to find what you want to watch and search by most popular, by genre and by day. So if customers hear about a show they missed or forget to record a crucial episode, it will be ready and waiting for them. All they need to do to access Catch Up is to activate On Demand and connect the Sky+HD box to their broadband router - all for no extra monthly cost.
More personal storage
Coinciding with the roll-out of Catch Up TV, Sky customers will now also be able to store more of their favourite shows than ever before with the launch this week of a new Sky+HD 2TB box. In response to customer demand for extra space to store their favourite TV shows, the Sky+HD 2TB box provides six times more storage than a regular Sky+HD box.
The Sky+HD 2TB box offers more personal storage than any other subscription TV provider, for example customers can record three times more high definition (HD) TV than with Virgin Media**. Sky customers will be able to use the massive capacity to store up to 350 hours of HD content, equivalent to more than two weeks' worth of HD TV viewing.
New ways to interact
Meanwhile, away from the main TV screen, Sky+ customers will also be able to start using the exciting new Sky+ app for iPad that lets them connect to online communities around virtually every show on TV, across Sky and other channels. Through the app, which goes live this week, Sky customers can interact more fully with content than ever before, following and contributing to online chat via an in-built Twitter feed, plus gain easy access to a range of extra information related to the show they are watching. So whether a Sky customer wants to find out more about a particular actor in a drama, or buy a piece of music featured on a TV show's soundtrack, they will be able to use the Sky+ app to find out more.
The immersive second-screen functionality - powered by the augmented TV specialists zeebox - is available in addition to existing features offered by the app which hand more control back to Sky customers over their viewing experience. These include being able to use the app to change the channels on their TV through a swipe of their fingers on the iPad, as well as browse their Sky+planner through the app, adding and deleting shows without interrupting their viewing on the main TV set. The Sky+ app for iPad is available to Sky TV customers at no extra charge.
Luke Bradley-Jones, Sky's Brand Director for TV Products comments: "Since launch, Sky+ has led the revolution in how we watch TV and let more than nine million households take control of their viewing. We're pushing forward again by offering customers even more flexibility, more personal storage and entirely new ways of engaging with their favourite TV. With customers using Sky+ a staggering total of more than a billion times each month, it remains the gold standard in pay-TV."
*On Demand is the new name for Sky Anytime+
** Compares recordable hours of a Sky+HD 2TB box to a VM TiVo 1TB box. See other providers' websites for box specifications
About Sky
Sky entertains and excites more than 10.3 million homes through the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Sky continues to break new ground with its own portfolio of channels: Sky 1 combines its commitment to UK production with the best of the US; Sky Living pushes ahead with fresh and innovative entertainment formats; Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated arts channel brand; Sky Atlantic is the home to HBO and other iconic drama and comedy, Sky Sports is still raising the bar in sports broadcasting; Sky News remains a pioneer in television news; and Sky Movies is leading the way in High Definition and on-demand.
Sky also works with dozens of other broadcasters on the satellite platform, as well as online and on mobile through the ground-breaking Sky Go service. Sky has also led the UK into the age of high definition television, launched Europe's first 3DTV channel, Sky 3D, and offers customer even more flexibility and choice through Catch Up, its internet-delivered video on demand service. Since launching Sky Broadband and Sky Talk in 2006, the company has also been the UK's fastest-growing home communications provider.
Sky believes in making a wider contribution to the communities in which it operates, not least by increasing participation in, and access to, the arts, supporting grassroots sports, and taking positive action on the environment.
