Brexit: Sky stops cross-border online viewing in EU Some British online media content will no longer be available to people visiting EU countries such as France. Sky is the first firm flagged up as affected by this 4 January 2021. The UK parliament might do that and sell it as 'just temporary while we finalize our strategy for brexit blablablabla', but if they go there they will never leave. I think even that is more likely. Sky News - First for Breaking News, video, headlines, analysis and top stories from business, politics, entertainment and more in the UK and worldwide. The Sky broadcast delay resulted in Last Week Tonight posting the Brexit segment on YouTube for the UK. Segments from the show are usually only available to international audiences online several.
Sky Mobile customers can now travel to 36 European destinations with total peace of mind, as their data, minutes and texts allowances can be used abroad at no extra cost. Here’s all you need to know about Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport, including supported countries, how to activate the service, and what happens if you run out of data in a foreign country.
What happens when I travel outside of the UK with Sky Mobile?
That depends which country you’re travelling to. Right now, Sky is offering its mobile customers the ability to use their standard data, minutes and texts abroad at no extra cost, for 36 EU and EEA countries. This is the Roaming Passport deal, which was introduced in June 2017 as per EU regulations.
In other words, you can access the internet as you can at home, for checking emails, browsing websites, streaming media and more. Any data used will simply come out of your standard UK allowance. Calls and texts to mobiles and standard landlines within those supported countries will also come out of your standard allowance, while you also won’t be charged to receive calls.
If you’re travelling to a country outside of this group, then charges will apply. More on this later.
What about Pay As You Use customers? Are they covered by the Roaming Passport?
If you’re a Pay As You Use customer on Sky Mobile, you’ll be charged 10p per minute or per text when calling or messaging a mobile phone or standard landline within the supported countries. You won’t be charged if you receive a call or text message.
Which European countries are covered by Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport?
The following is a comprehensive list of all of the countries covered by Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport at the time of publication.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Cyprus (Northern), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Azores (Portugal), Madeira (Portugal), Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
Do I need to activate the Roaming Passport on my Sky Mobile account or do anything else before leaving the UK?
Roaming is automatically enabled for all Sky Mobile customers, so your mobile phone should work as normal when you land in a foreign country. Likewise, Roaming Passport is enabled for all users, with no further action required. You can just travel to any of the above countries and use your phone as usual and as long as you don’t go over your limits, you won’t be charged anything extra.
Sky Go Brexit Account
What about other countries? What will Sky Mobile charge me for using my phone everywhere else in the world?
Sky’s rates for other countries are competitive, although charges can of course stack up if you’re not careful. Head to the Sky Mobile travel tariffs page for the charges incurred in every other country when travelling from the UK.
What happens if I use up all of my data allowance when abroad?
Don’t stress if you realise that you’re running low on data when outside of the UK. You have a few different options for topping up your data allowance, even when roaming. In fact, all of Sky Mobile’s usual top-up schemes work perfectly fine.
For one, any Piggybank data that you have saved up can be used abroad. That is, providing you have at least 1GB saved up in there. Check out Sky Mobile’s Piggybank page for more info.
Alternatively, you can simply buy a data add-on to give you more online time. These booster packages can be used in the supported EU and EEA countries without any extra charges. Just sign into your online account and choose ‘manage data’ to get started.
Is Brexit going to mean changes to mobile roaming charges?
Charge-free roaming is a new EU initiative, so it seems likely that Brexit will result in some changes to existing schemes. Of course, these changes all rest on the negotiations which are currently underway and we won’t know for sure until the UK leaves the EU what impact this move will have. Stay tuned!
Some British online media content will no longer be available to people visiting EU countries such as France. Sky is the first firm flagged up as affected by this
Britons staying in the EU and using apps to access Sky media content are no longer able to stream and download due to Brexit coming fully in to force this month.
Britons trying to access Sky services on their mobiles and tablets in the EU have found they now obtain error messages.
My parents who voted for Brexit and then moved to Spain. A photo story. pic.twitter.com/IJm2lksX5j
— Joey ☃️ (@MissRegardless) January 1, 2021This is a consequence of the UK leaving an EU law rule on ‘cross-border portability of online content services’, which was not included in the new future relationship deal.
As Skystates on its website: “From 1 January 2021, you won’t be entitled to stream Sky outside the UK using your Sky Go, Sky Kids, Sky Sports, Sky Sports Mobile TV and Sky Sports Box Office apps.”
These apps are used by subscribers to Sky television services while on the move and could previously be used in the EU.
However one solution could be to download content in the UK and save it on your device before visiting France.
Direct subscriptions to Sky TV are for residents of the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, though some people in France access Sky via other intermediaries.
Some Britons in the EU also access UK-restricted content on the internet by using a VPN so their computer appears to be located in the UK.
According to Sky “this [change] affects lots of online video, music and entertainment services, not just Sky”.
Sky Go Eu Brexit
However so far Sky is the main service to which The Connexion is aware of some Britons are saying they have lost access.
Sky Go After Brexit
The UK government states on its gov.uk website: “The EU Portability Regulation allows consumers across the European Economic Area (EEA) to access their online content services (for example, video-on-demand streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime) as if they are at home when they travel within the EEA.
“This means that an online service provider must provide customers the same content as in their home state when they are temporarily present in another state. The regulation applies only to travel between EEA member states.
“The EU Portability Regulation will cease to apply to UK-EEA travel from 1 January 2021. In the UK, the regulation will be revoked.
“Online content service providers will not be required under the regulation to provide content ordinarily available in the UK to a UK customer who is temporarily present in any other EEA member state.
“This will not prevent service providers offering cross-border portability to their customers on a voluntary basis, but to do so they will need the permission of the owners of the content they provide.”
The government says whether or not such services are maintained will depend on the terms of their services and licences in place between the firms and the right holders of the content (films, series, programmes…).
The Connexion asked Netflix if there will be any change for people with British subscriptions who visit France, however a spokesman said this would not be the case.
However he said their subscription terms and conditions already meant that, for example, when a person with a British subscription visits France, they have access only to the usual French range of content during the trip, which can have some differences from the UK range. However their service does not stop.
This has not changed, he said.
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