Sky is introducing a new 2TB version of its Sky+ PVR. New catch up TV services will also be launched to subscribers that have connected the box to the internet.
Sky is also creating new second screen activity through a new Sky+ app that allows subscribers to connect through online communities related to programmes on Sky and third-party channels. It will be released this week, enabling subscribers to find more info on a particular actor, or purchase music included in a TV show’s soundtrack.
This is the first integration with Zeebox, the start-up created by former iPlayer executive Anthony Rose, in which Sky now owns 10%. All Zeebox functionality had been integrated into the app.
Nine million homes now have the Sky+ box that generated more than 1.2 billion sessions of time-shifted viewing in the last month alone.
The new seven-day catch-up TV service debuts with content drawn from Sky, ITV and Channel 5. The BBC iPlayer will follow in the autumn with 4oD arriving early in 2013.
“Since launch, Sky+ has led the revolution in how we watch TV and let more than nine million households take control of their viewing,” said Luke Bradley-Jones, Sky’s Brand Director for TV Products. “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.”
Catch-up TV will be presented to subscribers at no additional cost. It will be available on the 890 and 895 Sky+HD boxes manufactured directly by Sky, within the former Amstrad business, and making up the majority of the installed base.
The new 2TB box will store six times the capacity of the regular Sky+ box, equivalent to 350 hours of HD content.
