If you are a Sky customer who currently enjoys the luxury of skipping through adverts, you might want to listen up because some viewers are set to start being charged for the privilege from today.
The first thing to note is that this will only affect certain customers - we'll go over that here.
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If you’re a Sky Q customer or a normal Sky TV customer you should still be able to scroll through adverts if – for example – you’ve paused your show and want to catch back up, or you’re watching something on Sky On Demand and want to just skip to the start without watching the adverts.
So, who will this new change affect, then?
Well, if you’re a new customer who purchases a Sky Glass or Sky Stream package as of today – that’s November 29, in case you’re reading at a different time – you’ll be charged an extra £5 per month to skip through adverts whilst watching live TV.
Furthermore, if you’re an existing Sky Glass or Sky Stream customer who was given the add-on to skip adverts for free for either a year or 18 months, when that offer ends you’ll also start getting charged £5.
Given that Sky Glass was only released back in August of 2021 there’s a decent chance that some of those introductory offers are set to come to an end in the near future, so that’s something to watch out for if you have one of those packages.
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Sky Stream actually only came out a few months ago, so your package might have a bit more left to run on it if you’re a customer with that package.
To check, go to the bottom of the Sky Glass or Sky Stream homepage, click 'My Sky' then 'Your Products'.
Still, it’s worth having a quick check when the add-on does run out, because you’ll then know when exactly you need to cancel it or expect to start paying an extra fiver every month.
If you want to cancel, best to contact the provider.
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Would you pay an extra fiver to skip through the adverts, though?
There’s certainly a case for it, isn’t there?
If you’re already paying to get rid of adverts on ITVX and All4, there’s an even better case to keep the add-on, because it could actually save you money.
ITVX is £5.99 to be free from adverts and All4 is £3.99 as well, so you’d actually save money by keeping on the Sky add-on instead, then getting rid of the separate payments.
Sky will still let you skip through the adverts anyway.
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There are no current plans to extend the £5 fee to get rid of commercials to Sky Q customers, but who knows what the future might bring?
The add-on for Sky Glass and Sky Stream actually means that customers can get their way through adverts on live TV, which is pretty clever, right?
The Ad Skipping pack doesn’t actually mean that the programmes you watch don’t have adverts at all, just that you can press the microphone button on your remote and ask it to skip forward three minutes to get rid of them, or just hold down the fast forward button to navigate your way through them.
Naturally, that doesn’t apply to live events on TV like the World Cup or anything like that.
Even Sky haven’t quite figured out the mystery of time travel just yet.
Topics: TV and Film, UK News, Money
Tom Wood