A trickle, not a flood —

Sky Q lands Sony’s 4K film catalogue, still probably isn’t worth paying for

Sky gets Sony content exclusively for a year before other services in EU.

Sky Q lands Sony’s 4K film catalogue, still probably isn’t worth paying for

Satellite broadcaster Sky has sealed an exclusive pan-European deal with Sony to bring 4K (UHD) movies to its Sky Q service. The deal means Sky Q will receive all new and future content from Sony Pictures up to a year before any other service in Europe. Those without Sky Q will be able to enjoy early access to Sony movies too—sans 4K—provided they have a Sky Movies, Sky Cinema, or Sky Film subscription.

Sky Q launched to much fanfare earlier this year, promising to bring 4K broadcasts to its satellite users, as well as the ability to stream recorded content to connected devices around the home. However, the service didn't launch with any 4K content, and at the time of publishing there was still no word from Sky as to when exactly 4K content would be available. Sky is, however, promising to show the 2016/2017 football season in 4K, which means an August launch at the latest.

Those tempted by Sky Q may want to take a look at the price first: it starts at £42 per month on top of an initial £99 setup charge—and that's only for those already with a Sky Broadband, Sky Sports, or Sky Movies package. That jumps up to £54 per month for access to 4K content and a beefier 2TB hard drive for recording shows. The total cost, including Sports and Movies is an absurd £88.50 per month. BT's Total Entertainment package—while not featuring as many channels—does have some 4K sports broadcasts for £16 per month. Netflix offers 4K content too for £8.99 per month.

Of course, you could just eschew all these modern services entirely and pick up a 4K Ultra HD player and some UHD disks, which launched in the UK last week. The selection is a little limited, though. There were just 12 UHD Blu-rays available at launch, including The Lego Movie, Life of Pi, and Mad Max: Fury Road. The sole player available is the Panasonic DMP-UB900, which costs £600, although Samsung will release its UBS-K8500 player for around £400 in the coming weeks.

Channel Ars Technica