Sky’s TV Shakeup: Disney+, HBO Max And Netflix Together

Sky announced today that it’s bringing together Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu into a single Sky TV subscription from £24 per month.

But that headline price comes with a 24-month contract commitment that brings back the very lock-in streaming was supposed to eliminate.

From April, new customers taking Sky Ultimate TV will get all four major streaming services bundled with Sky’s channels and originals. Existing Sky customers will also get access, with Disney+ arriving in March, HBO Max launching on March 26, and Hayu rolling out between March and July.

It’s being pitched as a world-first and a game-changer for UK viewers. But whilst the integration and potential savings are real, Sky is essentially asking you to give up the flexibility that made streaming appealing in the first place – and commit to paying for services you might not use for two full years.

So, is this a good deal? Let’s take a closer look at the details.

The Big Picture: Everything in One Place (Again)

If you’re old enough to remember the glory days of Sky before Netflix disrupted everything, this announcement might feel oddly familiar.

Back then, Sky was the premium TV package. You paid Sky, and you got pretty much everything worth watching – Hollywood films, HBO shows, live sports, entertainment channels, the lot.

One monthly bill, one remote control, everything integrated.

Then streaming happened. Netflix arrived and pulled away chunks of content. Disney launched Disney+ and took back their films and shows. Paramount created Paramount+.

Suddenly, premium content was scattered across multiple apps, each requiring separate subscriptions, separate logins, and separate billing.

Sky’s response was to become a platform – integrating Netflix into Sky Stream and Sky Q boxes, then adding Paramount+, Discovery+, and others as optional add-ons.

But you still had to manage multiple subscriptions and pay each service separately, even if you could access them through Sky’s interface (or pay for some of that through Sky’s unified billing).

This new deal takes things further.

Sky is essentially rebuilding that “everything in one place” bundle for the streaming era, with Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu all included as part of Sky TV subscriptions rather than separate add-ons you have to think about.

As Sophia Ahmad, Sky’s Chief Consumer Officer, put it at today’s London press event: “Nowhere else offers this breadth of incredible entertainment in a fully integrated experience, with everything customers love watching side by side so viewers can jump from show to show with ease.”

She’s not wrong. No other UK provider offers this combination of streaming services bundled together with traditional TV channels in a single subscription.

But there’s a catch. Actually, several catches.

The Contract Lock-In Problem

Here’s the thing that Sky’s announcement glosses over somewhat – that £24 per month Sky Ultimate TV price comes with a 24-month minimum contract.

Yes, you can get Sky Ultimate TV on a rolling monthly contract without the commitment. But the pricing is significantly higher – currently around £25 per month as an introductory offer, jumping to £35 per month after that promotional period ends.

And those rolling contract prices will likely increase alongside the 24-month contract pricing when this new bundle launches in April.

This matters because it changes what you’re signing up for.

One of the main appeals of the streaming revolution was flexibility. You could subscribe to Netflix for a month to watch Stranger Things, cancel it, pick up Disney+ for a bit to catch up on Marvel shows, cancel that too. You weren’t locked into anything.

Sky Ultimate TV with everything bundled at £24 brings back the old model – commit to two years, or pay more for the privilege of flexibility.

And if halfway through your contract you realise you’re not actually watching Disney+ or HBO Max much? Tough luck. You’re still paying for them.

The same applies to NOW. The £6.99 per month NOW Entertainment & HBO Max membership and the £4.99 per month NOW Entertainment membership are both based on taking NOW’s 6-month Monthly Saver option.

Pay monthly without commitment and those prices will be higher.

What Sky Customers Are Getting

The specifics vary depending on which Sky package you have and which box you’re using, so take a deep breath:

Sky Stream and Sky Glass customers with Sky Ultimate TV get the full works – Disney+ Standard with Ads (from March), HBO Max Basic with Ads (from March 26), Hayu (from July, with selected shows from March), and Netflix Standard with Ads.

That’s everything bundled into their existing package.

Sky Q customers with Sky Signature, Sky Entertainment and other eligible packages get Disney+ Standard with Ads, HBO Max Basic with Ads, and Hayu content added to their pack.

If you’re a Sky Q customer with Sky Ultimate TV, you also get Netflix included.

Sky+ customers get access to HBO Max Basic with Ads content and Hayu content, but notably not Disney+. That’s Sky Q and above only.

Sky Cinema customers get something extra – a new Disney+ Cinema channel, giving them access to even more Disney films as part of their subscription.

They’ll also continue to get new Warner Bros films such as One Battle After Another and Superman through Sky Cinema, thanks to Sky’s existing agreement with Warner Bros Discovery.

The selection will be similar to what’s available on HBO Max’s premium tiers, though not necessarily identical. They will also continue to get Paramount+ (with ads) included at no extra charge.

If you currently subscribe to Disney+ directly, you can move your subscription to Sky and save £5.99 per month, keeping your profile and watch history. 

The NOW Situation: It’s Complicated

NOW customers are getting HBO Max, but the implementation is notably different from what Sky customers are getting – and more limited.

From March 26, existing NOW Entertainment customers will automatically be switched to a new NOW Entertainment & HBO Max membership.

That’s HBO Max Basic with Ads integrated directly into the NOW app at no extra cost.

But here’s the major distinction – NOW subscribers won’t get access to the actual HBO Max app or have an HBO Max account.

Everything is built into NOW’s platform. You can’t use your NOW subscription to watch HBO Max content on other devices through the HBO Max app.

Sky Ultimate TV customers, by contrast, get a proper HBO Max account. They’ll use the HBO Max app directly, and can access it on any device that supports HBO Max – not just through Sky’s platforms.

This difference becomes even more significant when it comes to upgrading.

If you’re a Sky customer and want to upgrade from HBO Max Basic with Ads to a higher tier (to get the newest Warner Bros films in the catalogue, remove adverts, or access 4K), you can do so through Sky Billing by paying the difference.

That upgrade then applies to your HBO Max account, meaning you can use it across all your devices via the HBO Max app.

If you’re a NOW subscriber and want to upgrade, your only option is NOW Boost. Pay an extra £9 per month for NOW Ultra Boost, and you’ll get HBO Max content in 4K.

But it’s still all within the NOW app – you still don’t get a standalone HBO Max account.

It’s also unclear what happens with NOW’s regular Boost tier, which costs £6 per month and gives you Full HD quality. Will HBO Max content be limited to 720p on NOW without any Boost subscription? That hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it’s a concern.

For NOW Cinema subscribers, there’s another wrinkle. They’ll get access to the latest HBO Max films built into the NOW app.

So if you want the full HBO Max experience through NOW – all the shows, all the newest films – you’d need both NOW Entertainment & HBO Max (£6.99 per month with the 6-month commitment) and NOW Cinema.

Compare that to just subscribing to HBO Max separately, where £5.99 per month gets you Standard with Ads (including all the newest films) in Full HD, and the NOW route starts looking less attractive for anyone who wants the premium content.

Meanwhile, NOW subscribers won’t be getting Disney+ included at all – same way they don’t get Netflix or Paramount+ included today. That remains exclusive to Sky TV customers.

Disney+ Joins the Family

Sky and Disney have signed a new multi-year agreement that brings Disney+ to eligible Sky TV customers from March.

Sky Stream and Sky Glass customers with Ultimate TV, Sky Q customers with various packages, and Sky Essential TV customers with Sky Cinema will all receive Disney+ Standard with Ads (worth £5.99 per month) included in their subscription.

They’ll also have the option to upgrade to Disney+ Standard or Premium plans while keeping the £5.99 saving.

The content library includes acclaimed TV series like Rivals and The Bear, blockbuster films such as Moana 2 and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the full Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic catalogues.

Sky Cinema customers also get that new Disney+ Cinema channel, giving them access to even more films through their Sky Cinema subscription rather than needing to use the Disney+ app separately.

HBO Max Finally Integrated

We’ve known since December 2024 that Sky and HBO Max would be closely linked when HBO Max launched in the UK. Today’s announcement confirms exactly how that partnership works.

Sky Stream and Sky Glass customers with Ultimate TV, plus Sky Q customers, will get HBO Max Basic with Ads included as part of their Sky subscription from March 26 when the service launches.

This includes HBO’s complete back catalogue – Succession, The Wire, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos – alongside new productions like the Emmy and Critics Choice Award-winning The Pitt.

You’ll also get a selection of Warner Bros films, though not the newest theatrical releases (those require upgrading to HBO Max Standard with Ads or higher).

Sky Atlantic will continue to air upcoming seasons of HBO shows like Euphoria, House of the Dragon and The White Lotus simultaneously with HBO Max, maintaining that longstanding partnership that’s defined Sky’s premium content offering for years.

For anyone who’s been following the complicated relationship between Sky and HBO content in the UK, this feels like the natural evolution.

Sky has been the home of HBO programming since forever – Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Wire, all of it premiered on Sky Atlantic.

When HBO Max announced its UK launch just two days ago, the big question was whether this would finally break that connection or strengthen it. Turns out, it’s very much the latter.

Hayu Brings Reality TV

From July, Hayu will also be included in Sky subscriptions, bringing the best of reality television to Sky Stream and Glass customers with Sky Ultimate TV, plus Sky Q and Sky+ customers.

Hayu is the home of reality franchises like The Real Housewives and Below Deck, with new episodes available the same day they air in the US.

For those who can’t wait until July, a selection of Hayu’s top shows – including Below Deck, Below Deck Mediterranean, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City – will be available on Sky TV from March.

The content will be accessible on demand through your usual Sky platform, easily discoverable from the homepage.

Sky OS Brings It All Together

The integration piece is arguably what sets this apart from just having multiple streaming subscriptions.

Sky OS, the platform that powers Sky Stream and Sky Glass, curates entertainment from Sky and all these apps into one interface.

Shows and movies from Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, Hayu, and Sky’s own content will all appear side by side in the personalised Top Picks rail on the homepage.

Want to jump from Saturday Night Live UK to Stranger Things to The Pitt to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? You can do it all from one interface without switching apps or remembering which service has which show.

For the first time, Continue Watching will also let you jump back into Disney+ and Hayu shows alongside Sky, Netflix, and HBO Max content.

Previously, Continue Watching only worked for Sky and Netflix content – now it will extend across the entire platform.

Playlists let you save favourites from different apps and channels in one place to watch whenever you want. And everything integrates with Sky’s voice control, so you can say “Hello Sky, play The Bear” and it’ll find it regardless of which app it’s on.

Sky is also working on an upgraded Sky Go app that will finally bring some similar features to the Sky Stream and Glass experience.

The upgrade would hopefully let you sync playlists and Continue Watching lists across devices, though it won’t arrive until later this year.

What About Ad Skipping?

Sky’s Ad Skipping feature, which lets you fast-forward through adverts on Sky, ITVX and Channel 4, remains unchanged.

Importantly, Ad Skipping will not affect Disney+ or HBO Max content. If you’re on the ad-supported tiers of those services (which is what’s included with Sky subscriptions), you’ll still see adverts and won’t be able to skip them unless you upgrade to the ad-free versions of those services separately.

That’s worth keeping in mind if you’re used to zipping through adverts on everything else Sky offers.

The Timing of It All

Disney+ Standard with Ads arrives in March, though Sky hasn’t confirmed the exact date yet.

HBO Max Basic with Ads launches on March 26 – the same day HBO Max becomes available in the UK generally.

A selection of Hayu’s top shows will be available from March, with the full Hayu service rolling out in July.

The £24 per month Sky Ultimate TV pricing takes effect from April 1 for new customers.

The upgraded Sky Go app with improved features is coming later in 2026, but again, no specific date has been confirmed.

Is This Actually Good Value?

Let’s do the maths properly.

If you wanted to subscribe to all these services separately at their standard ad-supported prices, you’d pay:

• Disney+ Standard with Ads: £5.99/month
• HBO Max Basic with Ads: £4.99/month
• Netflix Standard with Ads: £5.99/month
• Hayu: £6.49/month

That’s £23.46 per month just for the streaming services, before you add any traditional TV channels at all. 

Sky Ultimate TV includes all of that plus over 130 Sky channels (Sky Comedy, Sky Documentaries, Sky Crime, Sky History, and more), Sky Originals like Saturday Night Live UK, and Sky Exclusives, all for £24 per month on a 24-month contract.

On paper, the value is undeniable. You’re essentially getting Sky’s entire channel lineup thrown in for 54p per month.

But remember – that’s only if you sign up for two years. The rolling monthly contract will cost significantly more, likely around £26 per month during promotional periods and potentially £35+ after that.

And you lose the flexibility to cancel individual services when you’re not using them. If you only watch Disney+ for a few months a year when new Marvel shows drop, or only need HBO Max occasionally for specific series, paying for them year-round as part of a bundled package isn’t necessarily good value.

For families or heavy TV watchers who use multiple streaming services constantly, this can be a good offer. You’re saving money and getting a better integrated experience than managing everything separately.

For more selective viewers who prefer the flexibility of subscribing and cancelling services as needed, the contract commitment might outweigh the savings.

Why Sky Is Doing This

The context matters here. Sky is under enormous pressure from streaming services that have steadily eroded its traditional business model.

Just this week, we covered how HBO Max’s UK launch could potentially undermine Sky’s long-held position as the exclusive home of HBO content.

Disney+ has been competing directly with Sky for subscribers. Netflix has become many people’s default entertainment option.

Earlier this month, Sky brought back Sky One after shutting it down in 2021, clearly hoping that nostalgic brand recognition would help stem subscriber losses.

Back in December, Sky Q was quietly removed from Sky’s website, signalling the company’s shift towards broadband-based Sky Stream and Sky Glass platforms that don’t require satellite dishes or engineer installations.

All of these moves point in the same direction – Sky is transitioning from a traditional satellite broadcaster into a streaming aggregator.

And if you can’t beat the streaming services, the next best strategy is to bundle them all together and position yourself as the one-stop shop that makes everything easier.

By integrating Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu into Sky’s platform with unified search, recommendations, and Continue Watching features, Sky is offering something none of these services can provide individually – convenience.

Yes, you could subscribe to each service separately and save a bit of money (especially if you don’t need all of them all the time). But then you’re juggling four different apps, four different interfaces, four different bills, trying to remember which show is on which platform.

Sky is betting that enough people will value simplicity and integration over flexibility and absolute lowest cost.

Whether that bet pays off will depend on how many UK viewers are willing to commit to long-term contracts in exchange for that convenience – and whether Sky can maintain these partnerships as the streaming world continues to evolve.

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