Sky TV dropping out for some customers as dying satellite starts to wobble

Monday, 27 January 2025

Sky TV faces a tricky temporary transition as an old satellite dies before its intended replacement is ready.

A growing number of Sky Television customers have begun experiencing intermittent disruptions to broadcasts in recent weeks as the satellite the company uses starts to die, the pay-TV firm has acknowledged.

Sky announced in August that the D2 satellite operated by satellite partner Optus would reach the end of its life in May, earlier than it had expected.

It has since been racing to put in place an alternative plan to keep its satellite service on air.

The lifetime of satellites is usually determined by the rate at which they consume the small amount of fuel they carry and occasionally need to expend to maintain their position in orbit.

Sky TV no longer believes it will need to adjust some dishes to pick up signals from its interim satellite.

At the end of their life, the last of their fuel is usually used to move them into a graveyard orbit further away from Earth, to avoid them becoming a hazard to other working satellites.

Sky advised investors on Monday that Optus had moved D2 into an inclined orbit — meaning it is no longer in a fixed position in space — to help conserve its remaining fuel.

That had resulted in viewing interruptions for some customers, it said.

“The numbers are small, but we have seen an increase in recent days, and we are working with individual customers to resolve issues for them,”

Sky has now settled on a plan to switch broadcasts to a different satellite in a similar position to D2 which it will use ahead of the launch of a new, more capable satellite, Optus 11, in a few years time.

Optus 11 is expected to allow Sky to broadcast at least some channels in the ultra-high definition ‘4K’ format.

Sky had feared it might need to visit some homes to adjust their satellite dishes so they could pick up signals from the stop-gap satellite it will rely on until Optus 11 is launched.

But Healy said it no longer believed that would be necessary.

There were nevertheless “inherent technology and logistical risks to the successful migration, some of which are outside Sky’s control”, it warned in its statement to the NZX.

Healy said Sky was working through the financial impacts of its satellite migration and would provide more details when it released its interim results on February 21.