Sky Plus

Sky Plus, or Sky+, is the built in Personal Video Recorder (PVR) service that comes with Sky Digital TV. Originally launched in September 2001, Sky+ used to require a special box, distinct from the normal digibox, but in January 2010 this was phased out and the Sky+HD Box became the standard issue set-top box. Customers taking Sky TV now will all receive the Sky+HD Box and then choose whether or not to take the HD pack for an extra monthly fee.

What Does Sky Plus Do?

Sky+ enables viewers to pause, rewind and record live TV. Like any PVR it does this by storing the programme data in a hard drive – in the case of pausing and rewinding this is very temporary as the hard drive plays it back when you press play again and with recording it’s usually kept for a longer period but the principle is the same.

Features

As a Sky+ customer you can

• Pause and rewind live TV
• Use Series Link – this records an entire series of a show at the touch of a button
• Record programmes easily – without setting a timer or looking around for tapes
• Watch Sky Anytime – a hand-picked collection of the best of the week’s TV
• Set your Sky+HD Box to record remotely – set recordings from your mobile phone up to 30 minutes before the start of the programme for a 25p charge

What Do I Need?

• Sky TV subscription
• A Sky+HD Box

The Sky+HD Box is now free for new Sky customers with a standard £30 set-up fee, although this is often reduced as part of special Sky TV deals so it’s often possible to get both box and set-up free.

You find PVRs in all digital TV services – in Virgin Media it’s the V+ service, BT Vision and Top Up TV boxes offer a similar facility and any Freeview box with the Freeview Plus logo is also equipped for pausing, rewinding and recording.

All new customers joining Sky TV have access to Sky+ as the basic starter bundles come with either the Sky+ box or the Sky+HD box, depending on whether you subscribe to the HD pack. This is different to Virgin Media where the TV packages do not feature the V+ service unless you choose to upgrade to a V+HD or TiVo box for an extra fee.

Sky Plus Boxes

There are essentially 2 versions of the Sky+ box available now, the regular Sky+HD box and the 1 terabyte version. The Sky+HD box has a 500GB hard drive, 250GB of which is available for you to use for recording and the other 250GB is used for the Sky Anytime service, which gives you access to a selection of on-demand content which is automatically saved to the hard drive overnight to be accessed on demand. The 1TB version of the box has the same features except with a 1TB hard drive for personal use and 500GB for the Sky Anytime service, so it has 4 times the storage of the regular box.

Sky TV Packages

• Sky+ HD Starter
• Sky+ HD with Sky Movies
• Sky+ HD with Sky World
• Sky+ HD with Multiroom
• Sky Broadband Everyday Lite
• Sky Broadband Unlimited
• Sky Broadband Connect
• Sky+ HD with Sky Sports
• Sky Entertainment
• Sky Entertainment Extra
• Upgrade to Sky HD
• Add Sky Sports
• Add Sky Broadband and Talk