The latest blockbusters are coming to your phone or tablet, as Sky lets you save movies and TV and watch them wherever you are, without Wi-Fi.
Sky is launching Sky Go Extra, an expansion of the Sky Go catch-up and on-demand service for Sky customers, the Telegraph reports. That means you can save new episodes of Girls, blockbusters like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, or classic James Bond films on your smart device to watch on the train, on holiday, or anywhere you haven't got Wi-Fi.
For £5 per month extra, up to four users can download stuff per account, and you can download as many movies and TV shows as you want. Each download sticks around for a month. So it's not so much of a download as it is a downloan.
Get it? Downloan! I done made up a word.
Previously, you needed a Wi-Fi connection to stream movies and TV to your computer or portable device. With movies cached on your phone or tablet, you can watch anywhere without having to pay for Wi-Fi or cut into your data allowance.
It's not clear if this will be a standalone app, or just an update to the Sky Go app, which has angered Android fans by only supporting a few Android devices.
Sky has the best line-up of new films and the pick of the latest TV shows, especially from the US on Sky Atlantic. Rivals Netflix and Lovefilm don't do downloads (although Lovefilm does do those old-school downloads you used to get, the ones that take ages to download. What were they called? Oh yeah, DVDs.)
Availability of new releases is a real sticking point for online streaming services: last week it was revealed that to watch a decent selection of recent films you need to pay for both Lovefilm and Netflix.
Sky Go Extra is coming in the next few weeks. If you want to watch the latest blockbusters, but don't want to fork out for a dish and a Sky subscription, you can get films from Sky Movies channels on a pay-as-you-go basis with Now TV, Sky's spin-off app and online streaming service.
Would downloads tempt you to switch to Sky? How do you watch movies online? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Comments 12
Add your comment
anonymous 21 January, 2013 13:34
lol ' downloan - copy right that bad boy.. haha
but sky is deff stepping up its streaming war
JSK73 21 January, 2013 15:52
For an extra £5.00 per month...
JSK73 21 January, 2013 15:57
For an extra £5.00 per month... I'd rather rent a movie from Blockbuster, oh hang on a minute, maybe i'll just buy a movie from HMV in the high street, oh hang on a minute... I can't see that Sky customers are going to sign up for this in their millions, the Sky Go app only works on iproducts and a (very) few android products at the moment. Maybe they should concentrate on compatability with Android before they roll this out? Once they've done that i'll resolutely wait for it to become free...
anonymous 21 January, 2013 15:59
If it lets you have 4 devices instead of 2 for live streaming, that would be worth a fiver a month alone to me
anonymous 21 January, 2013 16:36
For an extra 5 pounds a month I'd rather have a usenet subscription....
sheepybach 22 January, 2013 09:48
New device support for HTC One X+, Motorola RAZRi and Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7.0
That's all folks, so for an extra £5 and you have 1 of the above devices you can sign up, Oh you also get 2 extra devices which you can use to download any content on and watch BUT you can still only stream live on 2 devices at the same time. Nothing but a pathetic Joke by Sky.
anonymous 22 January, 2013 11:20
Being able to stream live on 2 devices at the same time rather than 4 is fair enough, in addition to your home TV - You'd have to have a very big household for that to be a problem. That, or you're letting other people use your account ...
anonymous 22 January, 2013 12:24
lets not forget sky made 1.2 billion pounds profit last year - would it have hurt to give something away to its customers for once?
anonymous 22 January, 2013 12:25
"Previously you need a wi-fi connection to stream"
No you didn't?
sheepybach 22 January, 2013 12:41
You can stream on 3/4G and Wi-Fi. What a laugh give something away frre to it's customers remember it's Sky you are talking about lol. The best bit is since Sky Go launched in 2011 Sky have gone to great pains to tell it's customers no more devices can be added as their content providers contract will not allow this and yet pay £5 and you can have another 2, when asked about this change Sky have gone into lock down/ ignore modes and stick heads in the sands and they will stop asking about this. Great Customer Service Sky lol.
I wonder as they have used the same excuse/reason for not being able to support android 10.1 tabs as contractual obligations to their content providers that in a few weeks these obligations can go away for another £5 and then you can use 10.1 android tabs. It is Sky after all.
sheepybach 22 January, 2013 17:55
Sky just told customers that tab 10.1 are not supported on sky as there are not many in use in uk. Lol best joke yet
horlicks 28 February, 2013 14:26
Is it true that downloads you only have 7 days to watch downloads? If so not much use for taking on holiday!