NOW TV review 2024: Is it any good?

Dan Howdle • August 7th, 2024

NOW TV is a subscription-based streaming service that allows you to watch top Sky content on a flexible month-by-month basis. You don’t need a satellite dish, just a smart TV with the app or a streaming device such as an Amazon Fire Stick, a Roku stick, Google Chromecast or Apple TV, or NOW TV's own streaming stick. And you can choose any combination of NOW TV’s Sports, Cinema, Kids, Entertainment, or reality TV Memberships.

Is NOW TV any good?

Key features

Here’s a quick look at what you can expect to find in a NOW TV package.

Channels	Around 50, depending on the membership
Technology	Internet
Bundles	Broadband
Set-top box	NOW TV Smart Box, NOW TV Smart Stick, Smart TV, App
Prices from	£8.99 per month

Channels

All NOW TV Membership offer a mix of live channels and on demand content. The channels you get depend on which Memberships you choose to take.

Entertainment Membership

The NOW TV Entertainment Membership gives you access to Sky One, Sky Witness, Sky Atlantic, Sky Comedy, Gold, Comedy Central, Sci Fi, Sky History, Sky Nature, Sky Arts, Sky Documentaries and Sky Crime. That's only a third of the number of channels that you get with a Sky TV subscription, but it does include arguably Sky's most popular channel, Sky Atlantic. There are around 40 live channels included and most people will probably find it plenty.

You also get access to on demand content with the Entertainment Membership, and catch-up is available for up to 30 days. There are more than 300 box sets from premium channels, with must-see shows, although the top-tier shows come and go frequently (due to distribution agreements), so be sure the show you want to watch is currently available before signing up.

Sky Cinema Membership

With NOW TV's Sky Cinema Membership you get more than 1,000 movies on demand, with a wide range of classics and new releases. There are themed movie collections, including science fiction, horror, action, comedy, Disney and romance, along with seasonal collections at Christmas and Halloween for example. Even if you manage to watch your way through the lot, there's a new premiere every day to keep you entertained.

You also get access to 11 live Sky Cinema channels, namely Premiere, Hits, Action, Animation, Family, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Horror, Thriller, Greats, Drama, and Select. The platform often adds temporary channels, such as Sky Cinema Christmas during the seasonal months, and all of this comes in at a price that's noticeably cheaper than getting Sky Cinema through Sky itself or a rival provider like BT.

Kids Membership

The NOW TV Kids Membership gives you access to six children's channels that aren't on Freeview: Boomerang, Cartoonito, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and Nicktoons. There’s also hours of catch-up and on-demand content. There's a simple, picture-based interface, which means that your kids shouldn't be badgering you for help all the time.

There are thousands of episodes to choose from, with plenty of content for kids of all ages, from babies up to teens. Parental controls mean you can choose what your kids are able to watch. However, the lack of Disney channels may leave some customers disappointed. For that, you will need to sign up to Disney+ as well.

Sky Sports Membership

The Sky Sports Membership works rather differently from NOW TV’s other memberships, enabling people who just want to watch occasional sporting events to do so. Whatever length of Sports membership you buy (a day, a week, or a month), you'll get access to the same eleven channels.

There's a dedicated channel for the Premier League as well as football, cricket, golf, Formula 1 and horse racing.

The Sky Sports Action, Arena and Mix channels cover Rugby Union, Rugby League, boxing, darts, NFL, tennis, athletics and more. There's a Main Event channel dedicated to the biggest live events from across Sky's range of sports channels. And of course, there’s Sky Sports News – what else are you going to watch on transfer deadline day?

It's worth bearing in mind with the NOW TV Sports Membership that though the other memberships on offer all represent great value versus the content they provide, a one-month Sports membership on NOW TV is one of the most expensive ways to watch Sky Sports.

Hayu Membership

The Hayu membership allows you to stream the latest reality shows from the US and stay up-to-date with programmes such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. There are no live channels included but there are more than 8,000 episodes to watch on demand.

Set-top box

NOW TV Smart Box

You don’t need a NOW TV Smart Box or Smart Stick in order to watch NOW TV. You can do so via any device that supports the NOW TV app, such as games consoles, smart TVs, other streaming sticks or streaming devices, tablets, mobiles, and so on. But if you just have a basic TV and are looking to beef up your viewing options, it might be worth getting a NOW TV Box or Stick.

With the NOW TV Stick (powered by Roku), you can also pause and rewind live TV. And beyond NOW TV itself, you'll also be able to load BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4, and other streaming apps.

The Smart Stick turns an ordinary television into a smart TV. And it now comes with HD and voice search and voice control capability. You can also pause live TV for up to 30 minutes. You'll need to sign up for a NOW TV account first; then you just plug the stick into a spare HDMI port on your TV and away you go.

Add-ons

Sky Sports Mobile Pass

The NOW TV Sky Sports Mobile Pass does allow you to watch on the go, but if you're going to be watching mainly on your phone, then there is a cheaper way to do it. (OK, this isn't so much an add-on as an alternative to a standard membership, but anyway.)

The Sky Sports Mobile Pass allows you to watch Premier League action and more on your mobile, but not on your telly. And it costs quite a bit less than the full Sky Sports membership. There’s only five channels included here so it depends what you’re into as to whether this is appealing. The included channels are Sky Sports Premier League, Action, Arena, Racing, and Sky Sports News.

Multiroom

NOW TV doesn't offer a Multiroom package and installation in the same way that Sky TV or BT TV does. But it is possible for two people to watch NOW TV in different rooms at the same time. You can register up to six devices to your NOW TV account and then use two of them simultaneously. Compatible devices include PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Xbox Series, smart TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, tablets and phones using iOS or Android, and more.

Packages and bundles

Bundles with broadband

As with the individual NOW TV membership, you can sign up for either NOW TV or NOW Broadband separately or take both. There are also times when NOW TV bundles them together as a special offer and it’s at times like these that you can save yourself quite a bit of money.

The bundles vary over time, so sometimes it’ll be a NOW TV Smart Box and NOW Broadband bundled together. At other times it’ll be a specific membership, such as the Sky Cinema Membership that is bundled in with NOW Broadband. Free anytime calls are often included with NOW Broadband deals.

TV on its own

NOW TV doesn’t insist on you being a NOW Broadband customer before you can sign up for it – but you will need a broadband connection from any provider. You can order the NOW TV Smart Stick if you need one on its own or with a few months’ worths of Membership included. The NOW TV Smart Stick can also be bought pre-loaded with a month of Sky Sports, a month of Sky Cinema or two months of Entertainment.

If you don’t want a set-top box or a streaming stick and it’s just a NOW TV membership you’re after, that’s OK too. You can start a 7-day free trial of the Entertainment, Kids, Sky Cinema or Hayu membership and then either pay the monthly price or cancel. There are also often introductory offers and discounts for taking multiple memberships at the same time.

The Sky Sports membership works a bit differently, as it will automatically renew unless canceled beforehand, but there’s now a 7-day free trial period. The day and week memberships are treated as one-off purchases so there’s no need to cancel. Again, look out for special offers and discounts.

An important note on image and audio quality

Before we reach our final conclusion, we feel we must warn, with a completely separate note here, of the comparatively low-quality images and sounds provided by the NOW TV platform as standard. At 720p, and often stereo (not surround) sound, from a technical standpoint, NOW TV has fallen a long way behind its competitors.

720p is better than DVD quality, but lower than blu-ray quality. As TVs get bigger and cheaper, the amount of pixels – the resolution – on-screen starts to matter more. And with the likes of Netflix and Amazon choosing 4K as their de facto resolution for new shows and movies, they are sending images to your screen that are more than 10 times sharper than NOW TV provides without adding Boost (see below). If you have a TV of 50 inches or less, you may not notice the low resolution, but people with larger sets and/or surround sound systems are likely to be unimpressed. In a dedicated cinema room, forget it, it's near-unwatchable.

NOW TV Boost and Ultra Boost

NOW TV has introduced the option to pay extra per month for Boost (1080p, 5.1 surround sound) of Ultra Boost (4K HDR, Dolby Atmos). This allows viewing in Full 1080p HD, or full 4K HDR, provides surround sound or Dolby Atmos audio respectively, and permits customers up to three streams so that three members of your household can stream at once with the Ultra Boost option. Full HD as standard is what we’d like to see NOW TV offering, but at least with Boost and Ultra Boost, you can insist on better quality, albeit at a cost to your pocket.

Our verdict: Good

In some ways NOW TV is a cut-down version of Sky TV, but it still offers some cracking content. It’s an easy and commitment-free way to access Sky Sports for those important events. And the Entertainment Membership is a cheaper way of watching Sky Atlantic shows than taking out a full Sky subscription. All this without the need for a satellite dish or a lengthy contract. However, when you add Boost or Ultra Boost to bring your audio and video up to the quality Sky Stream offers by default, there's only a couple of quid in it, which Sky Stream offers vastly more content.

The NOW TV Stick is a really cheap way to turn your standard television into a smart TV, and even comes with voice control. On top of that, the company offers truly unlimited broadband at a decent price. All in all, if you're looking for solid content on a flexible contract and at a good price. It's good value in and of itself, but with Sky Stream on the scene, we struggle to find reasons for choosing this over that.

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