Sky Store

I know it's not strictly TV pres-related, but I just have a quick question about the advertising surround Sky Store, such as this page. This has been intriguing me for a little while.

It claims both that movies are available "instantly" and that there is "no streaming" - yet I don't see how this can be true. As I understand it, Sky Store, like the rest of Anytime+, delivers programmes via broadband. So, surely either it download the whole film in one go - i.e. it's not "instant" - or you progressively download the movie whilst playing it - i.e. it's "streaming". Neither word is qualified in the small print in any of the ads I've seen.

Have I misunderstood how the service works, or did Sky re-define the words "instant" or "streaming" when I wasn't looking? Can somebody better informed than me clarify? Thanks.

It says "rent instantly" which I guess is what separates it from "watch instantly" in that you do rent/pay for it instantly, you just have to wait a bit longer to actually watch it. Much like the way you can't watch a DVD the second you rent it from a video shop.

With regards to the "no streaming" bit, given that what you would be watching would be partially downloaded to your box I suppose that technically wouldn't be streaming.

I does seem to have been quite carefully worded!

I could buy the rent / watch argument, but it's surely contentious at best. Amazon could, by that definition, say that i can buy a DVD instantly, and then take 3 days to deliver it. I doubt that's sit comfortably with the ASA.

I'm still flummoxed by the streaming argument, though. Surely, by definition, streaming is playing part of a file while the rest is downloading... even if a buffer at the start has been downloaded, as you suggest, surely that's still streaming?

From a strictly technical point of view, it isn't a stream as you are downloading it to your box, but you can watch it as if it were a stream.

As for watching instantly, it depends on your broadband speed and the length of the programme/film. The box will let you start viewing downloaded content when the estimated time to complete the download is less than the length of the programme/film, the idea being that you can then watch it from beginning for end without it rebuffering. For example, when I use Anytime+ on my box, it lets me watch SD immediately but I have to wait about 20 minutes before it will let me start viewing HD content.

Aha - now I get it! Thanks!

Yep - it's a download system, but you don't have to wait for the download to have finished before you start watching.

I think the box may track the download speed - as we're on 18Mbs broadband and HD is available to view pretty quickly on the Anytime+ stuff (I haven't purchased anything from Sky Store)