TechRadar Verdict
If it worked on 3G it would be better of course, but even now it's a brilliant iPhone app
Pros
- +
No buffering
- +
12 hour EPG
- +
Pause and rewind
Cons
- -
No on-demand
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Let's face it, Sky Sports is pretty expensive. A subscription to just Sky Sports 1 is £26.50 per month, rising to £35.50 if you take the full sports package. Add ESPN and it's another £9.
With Sky Mobile TV News and Sport for iPhone, Sky has made all of Sky's Sports channels (Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Xtra and News) plus ESPN, At the Races and Sky News, available to watch on Apple's device. And you don't even have to be a Sky Sports subscriber at home – all you pay is £6 per month subscription.
But you can only watch when you have a Wi-Fi network in range. The latter is almost certainly a restriction placed by O2 – something we saw with Sling Media's iPhone app. Compared to a regular Sky Sports subscription, the app is cheaper.
Obviously you don't have the channel choice – this is just news and sport, and unless you have an Apple Component AV cable, you're limited to the small screen. But you do get all the live Premiership and Football League games from Sky and ESPN, live international and domestic cricket, La Liga, Serie A, live US Open tennis and much, much more.
There's no on-demand like Sky Player – this is just live – but for £6 per month, it's undeniably very good value. The electronic programme guide is well put together – you can see what's on now and next, and by hitting the arrow next to the listing, you can browse what's on in the next 12 hours.
When you're watching, quality is incredible – much better than we expected. We tested the app on a Virgin 50Mb and a BT 8Mb connection, as well as using The Cloud at Paddington station.
On no occasion did we ever experience any buffering. Quite remarkable, really. You can even pause – as with Sky+ – and rewind the action back 30 seconds.
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