Sky is pulling the plug on Sky Live, its ambitious interactive camera for Sky Glass TVs, barely two years after it finally launched.
From today, November 4, Sky Live customers will start receiving notifications that the service will cease to operate on December 4, 2025 (so forget about playing with it during Christmas).
After that date, your £290 camera will essentially become an expensive paperweight – or door stop, if you prefer.
It’s a surprisingly swift end for a product Sky kept championing as recently as last year’s Sky Glass Gen 2 launch events, where representatives assured me that Live was very much alive and kicking. Turns out, it wasn’t.
The Rise and Fall of Sky Live
To understand how we got here, we need to rewind to October 2021, when Sky first announced the camera alongside the original Sky Glass.
The device promised to revolutionise home entertainment with four key features: video calling via Zoom, motion-controlled gaming, AI-powered fitness workouts, and a “watch together” feature for shared viewing experiences.
Sound familiar? If you’re getting flashbacks to Microsoft’s Kinect camera for the XBOX – launched in 2010 and eventually shelved – you’re not alone.
Even at the announcement, there were questions about whether Sky could succeed where Microsoft had struggled.
The camera was originally supposed to launch in Spring 2022, but after a lengthy two-year delay, Sky Live finally arrived in June 2023.
By then, the world had moved on somewhat. Video calling had become ubiquitous on every device we own. Motion-controlled gaming had its moment and faded (with gamers moving onto VR gaming). Home fitness apps were everywhere.
Still, Sky Live offered some genuinely interesting features. The 12MP camera included body tracking technology for the Mvmnt fitness app, offering real-time form feedback and rep counting.
The motion control games ranged from Fruit Ninja to PAW Patrol, using AI-powered gesture control. And the Zoom integration was supposed to make TV-based video calling simpler than most alternatives.
But here’s the catch – Sky Live only worked with Sky Glass. Not with Sky Stream, not with any other smart TV. Just Sky Glass. That limited audience likely didn’t help its cause.
Sky’s Official Statement
In their announcement today, Sky struck a diplomatic tone:
“Innovation has always been at the heart of Sky, finding new ways to make the TV experience even better for our customers.
“Sky Live was part of that journey, and we’re proud of the ambition behind it. It’s given us valuable learnings that are helping to shape the future of our products.
“We have, however, made the difficult decision to discontinue it, in order to focus our investment on what matters most to customers.”
Sky pointed to their recent focus on Sky Glass Gen 2 and Sky Glass Air, Sky OS updates, their broadband service, and the new Sky Protect home insurance. The subtext is clear – they’d rather invest in products with broader appeal.
The company did throw customers a bone, noting that they’ve “invested in bringing more games to Sky Glass & Stream for all customers to enjoy”, including Who Wants to be a Millionaire, PacMan, Teletubbies, and Spongebob games.
So at least some of the gaming ambition lives on, even if it doesn’t require a £290 camera.
What Happens to Your Sky Live?
You can continue using your Sky Live camera until December 4, 2025. After that date, the service shuts down completely and the product will no longer be supported.
But Sky is offering full refunds to everyone who bought the device, regardless of when they purchased it.
If you paid upfront: You’ll receive a full refund within three weeks, paid to your saved payment method. If you owe Sky money on your bill, they’ll deduct that first and send you the difference.
If you’re paying monthly: Sky will cancel all future loan repayments and refund everything you’ve paid so far. Again, any outstanding arrears will be paid first, with the balance returned to you.
This is quite remarkable. Someone who bought Sky Live at launch in June 2023 for £290 upfront will get their full £290 back, even after two and a half years of use.
That’s far more generous than most tech companies would offer for a discontinued product.
However – and this is important – this only applies if you bought the device directly from Sky. If you picked up a Sky Live camera second-hand, you won’t be eligible for a refund.
And here’s a warning for anyone browsing eBay or Facebook Marketplace in the coming months: you’ll likely see Sky Live cameras being sold by dubious sellers who fail to mention the service is no longer operational.
Don’t be tempted – you’ll be buying an expensive brick.
Returns and Recycling
Here’s some good news: you don’t need to return your Sky Live camera to receive your refund.
Sky will let you keep it, though after December 4 it’ll be utterly useless. It can’t be repurposed for anything else – it’s designed exclusively to work with Sky Glass and Sky’s services.
If you do want to return it, Sky will provide a pre-paid Royal Mail label. Visit the Sky Live returns page to request one. If you still have the original packaging, use that to send it back.
Alternatively, you can recycle your Sky Live camera at your local recycling centre.
What About Your Data?
Sky has assured customers that the Sky Live camera is “fully secure and encrypted”.
If you keep your camera and it remains connected to Sky Glass and the internet, Sky will push an update on December 4 that will reset the device and wipe all data and settings.
If you return your camera to Sky, they’ll remove all data before recycling it.
The Bigger Picture
Sky Live’s demise is a reminder that even big companies with deep pockets can’t always predict what customers actually want.
The camera arrived too late to capitalise on the pandemic-era boom in home fitness and video calling. It was too limited in compatibility, working only with Sky Glass rather than as a standalone product.
And it was competing in categories where customers already had multiple alternatives.
For Sky Glass customers who did embrace Sky Live, this news will be disappointing. But at least Sky is handling the shutdown gracefully, with full refunds and no requirement to return the hardware.
For everyone else, Sky Live will become a footnote in the history of ambitious tech products that simply arrived at the wrong time – or perhaps solved problems that didn’t really exist.
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