Pay television provider Sky has published research suggesting that the United Kingdom can move fully to online television in the 2030s. It says that only about a third of a million households will be left, if the government sets a clear timetable and invests in targeted help for those most at risk of digital exclusion. Sky has little interest in digital terrestrial television but does face its own challenge in migrating satellite television subscribers to its own Sky Glass and Sky Stream online platform.
The Sky research was commissioned from Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, which previously produced a report for Everyone TV that projected that Freely would be the biggest television device platform in the country by the end of the decade.
Its latest report Stream On: The future of UK TV concludes that every household in the United Kingdom could have access to online television by the mid-2030s. It suggests that a ‘nightlight’ digital terrestrial television or satellite service would be costly and little used, with minimal audience demand.
It says consumers would prefer the government to focus on digital inclusion than maintaining a legacy broadcast system.
The report notes that 94% of homes in the United Kingdom had home internet access in 2024 and 76% have a smart television.
However, that does not mean that most homes receive television channels online. In fact, the report notes that in 2023, only 3.7% of homes exclusively used online linear television channels on their primary television set, while two thirds of homes used some form of hybrid reception.
The government is currently considering options for the future of television distribution in the United Kingdom and is due to report soon.
Nick Herm, the group chief operating officer at Sky, said: “This research shows that modern TV and social inclusion can go hand in hand. A full move to internet-delivered TV in the 2030s is achievable — and it can help close the digital divide rather than deepen it.”
He said government investment in skills and affordable connectivity for the relatively small number of households who still need help to get online will have benefits far beyond television, while saving hundreds of millions on maintaining legacy systems.
One might wonder what Sky, as a subscription service provider, could possibly gain from turning off terrestrial transmitters and encouraging people to migrate to online alternatives.
Perhaps the more pressing question for Sky is how it plans to migrate the rest of its subscribers from satellite services to its online platform without losing them to alternative providers.
A campaign backed by the government to support a second digital switchover might help.
Stream On: The future of UK TV by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates is available from its web site.