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Posted on November 10th, 2009 by David Bayon
Sky Mobile TV app brings live sport to the iPhone
Spotify generated huge excitement when it launched with its offer of unlimited music for £10 a month, but this simply blows it out of the water. Sky has today launched a new Mobile TV app which offers live streaming of a selection of its most popular premium channels for a monthly fee, and you don’t even have to be a Sky TV subscriber at home.
The core Sky Mobile TV News and Sports app is available for free, and offers full listings for the core sports and news channels. But for the paltry sum of £6 a month, you can stream live coverage from those channels over a Wi-Fi connection.
For that price you’ll get the full Sky Sports package of 1,2, 3 and Xtra, Sky Sports News and Sky News, as well as the added subscription channels ESPN and At The Races.
ESPN alone – thanks to its Premiership football matches – will add £9 to a Sky TV bill which will already be at least £36 with the Sports package, so the £6 app looks like staggeringly good value. And a limited number of iPhone owners with O2 can get three months free to try it for themselves.
I downloaded the app and signed up to test it and it works flawlessly. The connection to Wi-Fi is instant, the channels load in seconds, and the admittedly YouTube-quality footage runs smoothly and is surprisingly watchable on the small screen.
Obviously it’s dependant on being able to connect to Wi-Fi when you’re out and about, but the thought of being able to watch the Monday night ESPN match in an airport or on a commute is wonderful. It manages to make the overpriced channel seem palatable.
Horse racing channel At The Races is probably less of a draw for most, but its inclusion isn’t too surprising given its importance to Sky’s gambling arm, SkyBET.
The obvious comparison to Sky Mobile TV is Spotify, but they’re really very different beasts. Spotify’s unlimited music will take time to prove its worth at £10 a month, particularly as we already own so much music on our phones. But this is live sport, something that can’t really be had anywhere but your living room or the pub. And it’s priced low enough that it really doesn’t register on your budgetary consciousness. Spotify will no doubt be watching with considerable interest.
As will I. So if anyone needs me I’ll be enjoying the tennis under my desk. Just don’t tell Tim.
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15 Responses to “ Sky Mobile TV app brings live sport to the iPhone ”
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November 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Hmm, tried to sign up for the 3 month trial – got the code from O2 but it doesn’t work in Sky’s sign-up page. I guess I’ll wait a while and see if Sky’s system catches up.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
It’s worth the money just to get a daily peak at the lovely Sky Sports News girls!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
HI EVRY BODY IM IN AFRICA-ETHIOPIA AND SKY IS SO NICE SOURSE OF SPORT INFO.FOR US THANKYOU .
November 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
lovely viewing on my ipod touch-works a treat.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:51 am
So, it seems there is nothing to stop someone with a jailbroken iPhone to install an app such as TV-Out, and use it in conjunction with an Apple AV cable to watch Sky Sports on a normal TV. The quality would be so-so but still watchable.
As it is wi-fi only this of course doesn’t take additional broadband bandwidth costs into account, though of course you could lug your LCD TV down to Starbucks I suppose!. At £6 versus £40 a month, could Sky be about to shoot themselves in the foot?
November 11th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
@PeeB, if you’ve ever tried watching low-resolution footage on a decent sized HD TV I think you’d struggle to call it watchable. Even on the iPhone you can see the compression during playback, so I doubt Sky is particularly worried about people deserting its satellite service.
Also, I don’t have the cable so haven’t tried it myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if output is disabled.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
David. I’ve managed to get it working this afternoon, using Screensplitr on the (jailbroken) iPhone (TV-Out didnt seem to like Skys media player). The framerate is not too good, but that seems to be a limitation of Screensplitr, as playing video using (Apple supported) iPod playback is fine.
I think if there was an alternative to Screensplitr with a decent framerate then it certainly would be watchable, particularly at only 6 quid a month, but as you say it’s no match for Sky-HD.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
If you are a sky subscriber then this should be free. I already give sky enough of my money and have no intention of giving them more. It would also be nice if i could stream a movie to my iPhone on a plane equiped with wifi. Or alternatively ‘legitimately’ download a film to my iPhone and watch offline? There are many possibilities here but they ain’t getting more money out of me!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:52 am
@ Charles Kenton – 100% agree, already give a sizeable chunk of cash to Sky for the joy of their sevice, think subscribers have already paid so should get it free.
Also am concerned that it is ’selected sports’ as I have zero interest in football, but love my Rugby wonder how much coverage that would get, or is it the normal channel programming that is being offered?
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Jon R
‘it the normal channel programming that is being offered?’
Not quite. Or at least I can’t see how it is.
You do get all the channels as promised, plus ESPN, but I’ve discovered some matches on Sky require you to select via the red button. I can’t find how to access an equivalent feature in Sky TV mobile on my iPhone so, frustratingly, I couldn’t get to watch the match I wanted. In fact I could only get to one of the six matches being played (the one on the main channel).
Not sure if this affects Rugby coverage too but it’s something to be aware of. You are promised all the content and this is not what you get, or at least I can’t see how to get it.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Peeb, I have just bought the composite AV cable for the iphone. My iphone is not jailbroken. Is there anyway I can connect the iphone to TV to watch the sky TV mobile? At the moment the sky TV mobile does not work on TV using the composite AV cable….
November 30th, 2009 at 11:00 am
@ Peeb and Rishi – If you have a iphone 3G / 3GS, then the composite AV cable will not work unless jail-broken (using screensplitr).. as Peeb pointed out the frame rate is pathetic. What you need to buy is the genuine apple COMPONENT AV cable. This works with 3G/3Gs and plays movies/bbc iplayer etc… however I’ve heard a rumour sky mobile app is blocked from tv-out signal… correct me if i’m wrong please.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Dan – I have bought the genuine apple component AV cable (cost £35 from apple store) and have had no luck connecting sky mobile TV on the genuine iphone 3GS to my main TV. I spoke briefly with Sky and it sounds like they have blocked the tv-out function of the app…..
January 4th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Hey Peeb just how good or poor was the picture quality with Screensplitr?
Im interested in buying the proper Av Cable from Apple but if the playbacks really poor then i may as just as well watch it on sopcast or similar channel online?
January 21st, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Thanks guys. Was tempted to buy the composite AV connector to try screen, but you’ve saved me the bother.
Think i’ll just stick to my free 3 months and then pack it in until sky come to their senses and allow people who subscribe to both the main sky product and this to use the TV out.