Sky announces Ireland's largest on-demand catch up TV service

Pictured (l-r): Rachel Wyse (Sky Sports News), Karen Koster (TV3's Exposé), Dora The Explorer (Nickelodeon).

When I was a kid we had a VHS player. The shelf had a long row of blank tapes which had recordings of movies and TV shows and a scrap of paper where we'd scribble the tape number for the latest recording. It worked fine but was a pain in the ass in retrospect - having to tee up a blank tape (after finding one) and set a timer or wait for the programme to start. Hopefully the timer would work fine and the tape wouldn't be chewed up in the process. Many people of my parents generation hadn't a clue - giving rise to the popular adage "my Dad can't even work the video recorder".

Fast forward (ahem) twenty five years and things have come a long long way. Helped by "the internet" and the technology that's available in most homes, this entire process has been efficiently and extremely effectively outsourced into the cloud. There are a growing number of catch-up TV services out there, most of the domestic TV networks like RTE, TV3 and TG4 have on demand catch up "Players" that can be accessed over the internet and are embedded in our TV experience.

Adding to the list, Sky today announced the availablilty of their on-demand catch up TV service.

The service enables viewers to catch up on TV shows they have missed in the last 30 days and is available at no extra cost to existing Sky TV customers.

Sky On Demand now offers catch up for 43 TV channels from today with a further 6 to be added in the coming weeks, including TV3's player.

To avail of the service, Sky TV customers just need to hook up their Sky+ box to their broadband internet connection. For newest Sky TV customers their box already has WiFi built in - older boxes will be able to get a small gizmo for free from Sky to enable this connection.

Once connected, Sky claim their on demand service will offer top new shows from Sky1, Sky Living, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 as well as other non-Sky channels such as TV3 (from next week), Channel4, More4, E!, Universal, SyFy, Fox, TLC, Discovery Channel, Nat Geo, History, MTV, Comedy Central, Boomerang!, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. The exact list of channels available to customers will depend on their TV subscription (full list below).

Sky are so chuffed that they can offer these additional channels that they got Dora the Explorer to drop in to the announcement at Burlington Road in Dublin this morning.

JD Buckley, Sky Ireland's MD commented:

“We are delighted to be kicking off 2014 by launching Ireland’s biggest Catch Up TV service and bringing even more great TV to our customers in Ireland. We have a great line up of channels included in the service which means that TV fans across Ireland no longer need to worry about missing their favourite TV programmes, movies, sports events and news. The addition of Catch Up TV to our On Demand service at no extra cost adds value to our offering and represents a great way to start what will be another exciting year for our customers.”

Furthermore, customers using the Sky+ app can now download an On Demand show to their Sky+HD box at home from anywhere in the world so it is ready and waiting to watch when they get home. This is in addition to being able to browse the TV listings or On Demand sections when they are out of the house or on their sofa to discover what to watch next.

The full list of channels available is below. What do you think? Will this convince you to join Sky TV? 

All services offered by Sky, including Unlimited Broadband, are available on bonkers.ie.