Sky to let customers watch TV without a satellite dish for the first time

The move appears to be an attempt to slow its rate of 'churn' – or how many people leave it

A satellite dish is pictured on the roof of the European Broadcast Union (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse )

Sky is going to let people watch all of its TV channels without a satellite dish for the first time ever.

The company is going to let people watch its full TV service through broadband instead of installing an entire satellite dish on their house. The move is apparently an attempt to stop the rate of "churn" at Sky – how many people join the service and then leave.

The announcement came as Sky revealed surging numbers of people leaving to competitors like BT – up to 11.6 per cent from 10.2 per cent last year. Those same results showed a 9 per cent fall in earnings because of the increased price of football rights.

The special broadband TV service will offer a version of Sky Q over the internet. Sky Q is a new, premium box and TV service that lets people watch their recordings throughout their house and on their phones.

The service will initially launch in the UK in 2018. It intends to bring it to the rest of Europe "over time", it said.

Sky also plans to launch a loyalty programme in the UK this year to help retain customers, following the success of a similar scheme in Italy.

Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive of Sky, said: "In a year in which we are absorbing significantly higher programming costs, as a result of the step up in Premier League costs, our financial performance has been good."

The news came soon after Sky accepted an £11.7 billion takeover offer from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

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