Jordan O'BrienSky Q is set to be launched in Italy, Germany and Austria in the next few months, the satellite broadcaster has confirmed. Italy will be the only one to receive the platform in 2017, however, with a launch scheduled before Christmas.
The launch of Sky Q can be seen as a rousing success in the UK and Ireland, with the company noting that over 1.6 million customers are now subscribed to the service. Replicating that success in Italy, Germany and Austria has long been on the roadmap for Sky.
Customers in Italy won’t have to wait long before they receive Sky Q. While the company isn’t saying exactly what day it will be landing in the country, it should land this side of Christmas. Subscribers in Germany and Austria will have to wait until the first half of 2018, however. Thankfully, those customers have Sky+ Pro to tie them over, which offers one of Sky Q’s major features – 4K UHD content.
Despite an increased subscription fee, Sky customers who have already taken the plunge and subscribed to Sky Q cite its support of 4K content as the main reason behind their decision. Sky says that it now has over 1,000 hours of 4K content available, with sports, movies and TV shows all receiving a resolution upgrade.
At MIPCOM, Gary Davey, MD Content Europe for Sky, noted that there will be more 4K content coming to the platform soon. That’s largely thanks to the dramatic reduction in production costs, which continue to fall.
While production costs fall, Sky is upping its budget for the development of non-sport UHD content. That may not help the company that much in markets such as Germany and Italy, where interest in sporting events such as football are significantly higher than it is in the UK. With nearly 50% of the UK uninterested in football, however, it could satisfy customers this side of the channel.