Sky (yes Sky!) have just entered the hardware streamer market with the launch of the Now TV box this morning. As the name implies, it’s a standalone box that can stream Now TV as well as other services such as iPlayer, 5 On Demand, Sky News, BBC News and Spotify among others. The box itself is simply a rebranded Roku, but for the bargain price of £10. Yes, that’s not a typo. If you thought Chromecast was cheap, this is literally an impulse buy (and available in the UK!).
On the downside though, unlike an actual Roku it can’t play Netflix for obvious, if annoying, competitive reasons. Now TV is also on the expensive end of the streaming movie service market at £15 a month (after 3 months at £8.99) and £9.99 for a one day Sky Sports Pass. However the movies are generally much newer than on Netflix or LoveFilm, if not in the same HD quality.
What’s not quite clear at this time is whether or not the free services will require a paid Now TV account. We’ll provide an update when we know more, but this could potentially put a big downer on things.
Take a look for yourself here.
Cheap as chips! For that price worth it for just the HDMI lead and charger… Would certainly come in handy if you have an old-skool dumb TV (like me) but don’t have it wired up in a different way already. Great incentive to the internet-afraid people out there.
I wonder if it would be possible to flash the standard ROKU firmware onto it….?
I bet that’s what everyone is wondering. fingers crossed as it would be great to be able to run Plex on it.
Confirmation you don’t need to register or even login to Now TV on your TV to access the free stuff:
http://community.nowtv.com/t5/NOW-TV-Box/Can-I-use-my-Now-TV-box-if-I-am-not-paying-a-subscription-for/m-p/120120