The age of satellite TV is ending — Sky Q is finished, and Sky Stream is the future

• Sky Q is no longer available to order online
• Existing subscribers needn't worry about losing service
• Sky is recommending Sky Glass and Sky Stream

It's time to raise a glass to the dearly departed: Sky Q is no longer a new product you can buy, signalling the beginning of the end for UK satellite TV.

According to ISP Review, the Sky Store now informs would-be Q buyers that Sky Q is no longer available to buy, and it directs them to the Sky Stream and Sky Glass products instead. The Sky Q page now says: "We've unplugged Sky Q. Plug in Sky Stream for less".

It's not a huge surprise – the writing has been on the wall since Sky Stream launched in 2022, and Sky Q has become less and less visible since – but it's still a significant milestone.

You can read our Sky Stream review for more about how well that box works, as well as our reviews of the Sky Glass 2nd Gen and Sky Glass Air, which are the other options Sky would love you to pick up.

Why is Sky Q gone?

The firm we now know as Sky began broadcasting via satellites to the UK in 1989 with four channels: the Sky Channel, a general interest channel; Eurosport; Sky News; and Sky Movies. Over the years it expanded that line-up dramatically, and for those of us who lived outside cable TV regions it was the only way to upgrade the four-channel lineup of broadcast TV.

It also became something of a status symbol: I remember being very impressed and extremely jealous of my schoolfriends whose parents didn't just subscribe to the basic Sky package but to the all-singing, all-dancing plans with more channels than you could ever hope to watch.

The reason for the shift towards broadband TV is simple: satellite broadcasting is expensive and the current crop of satellites are coming to the end of their 15-year intended lifespan. With so many of us already on internet-based streaming there isn't a huge market for satellite like there was in previous decades. And that means there's no desire to invest big money for what would be small returns.

If you're a current Sky Q subscriber, don't worry: they're not going to pull the plug on your service or pull the dish off your chimney just yet. It's likely that we'll still have satellite broadcasting until the end of the decade, possibly even longer – though you can read what it's like to switch from Sky Q to Sky Stream here.

But it's clear that the satellite age of TV is over. We've seen the future, and it streams.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.