Death of TV looms as satellites floating in space will reach end of life in just 5 years

EXCLUSIVE: A major deadline is about to hit around six million Brits who use older Sky Q, Sky+HD or Freesat services to watch television, with no plan to fix it in place

Adam Cailler Senior reporter and MSN lead

10:20, 17 Sep 2025

Enjoy it while it lasts (stock)(Image: Getty Images)

Millions of Brits could be left without any TV channels in just five years time as one of the biggest networks refuses to comment. A deadline of 2030 is looming for anyone on either Sky Q, Sky +HD and Freesat as the current satellites used as the signals to Earth will reach their end of life point.

Currently, for those who aren't up-to-date with their space satellites, there are three main Astra satellites in our orbit broadcasting the signals to allow us to watch TV.

Called Astra 2E (2013), Astra 2F (2012) and Astra 2G (2014), they all have a roughly 15-year life span, and will all have reached or exceeded the end of their service life by 2030.

[Sky didn't comment when we asked about it ]

Sky didn't comment when we asked about it (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

This means that they will be turned off and left to float for eternity, leaving millions still using satellite TV without any channels unless Sky and those behind Freesat (BBC, ITV, C4 and C5) decide to either replace or renew them . . . which is not something they have yet confirmed.

The plan from providers such as Sky was for users to switch en masse to the Sky Stream service, but the last publicly available information shows that around 4m Brits are still using Sky Q.

There are also several people still on the older Sky +HD service, although exact figures haven't been produced since 2016.

And when it comes to Freesat, around 1m homes use that service meaning around five to six million homes are still on satellite television networks.

[Millions are going to be left with no signal]

Millions are going to be left with no signal(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

To make the situation more worrying, when the Daily Star contacted both Sky and BBC about this, only Sky responded but refuses to comment directly on the 2030 issue.

Instead, a spokesman said: We have millions of customers on Sky Q and Sky+ HD who we continue to support.

There had been suggestions from some industry experts that Sky could end up being forced to send its new Stream service boxes out to all customers still on the older systems, but again, bosses have not yet commented on this.

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As it stands, Sky is still flogging its Sky Q boxes online with minimum terms of 24 months, so it seems as though they are in no rush to force customers to change.

And when it comes to Freesat, most newer TVs come with internet-enabled Freeview services which can be streamed without using a satellite, so the issue is less-pressing for those customers as a replacement TV is a simple option.

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