Sky Glass TV is an all-encompassing device that eliminates the need for a satellite dish, set-top box, or any other external device. However, a major outage has left hundreds of Sky Glass smart TV and Sky streaming service customers across the UK in a state of boredom and frustration.
The devices have been stuck on a blank screen, and there’s seemingly no fix yet. The issues started appearing on Thursday around 9 pm BST, with reports flooding into outage tracker Downdetector. The complaints have continued, with issue tallies still elevated as of Sunday, four days after the problem began.
Customers have taken to social media and Sky’s community forums to vent their frustrations. Many have shared videos of unresponsive sets with slowly blinking standby lights as the only sign of life. A Sky employee has posted on the forums, asking customers to carry out troubleshooting steps to try and resolve the issue. However, this seems to have done little to alleviate the hundreds left without access to live sports, shows, and movies for days on end.
The problems have fueled speculation that a botched firmware update may be the culprit behind the problem. While some feel they’re owed refunds or bill credits for the TV service blackout, Sky has been silent on any plans for making it up to customers. A troubleshooting guide has been provided for manually restarting affected TV sets, but a permanent solution is still awaited.
The outage has highlighted the importance of robust update processes and redundancies in consumer tech. Sky’s pivot from satellites to streaming as the future of home entertainment has been ambitious, but it’s clear that more work needs to be done to ensure a seamless experience for customers.