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Sky Store Buy & Keep download to own service rolls out on Sky+HD

Sky has opened up its Buy & Keep download to own service on connected Sky+HD boxes. 

The service, announced earlier this month, gives customers the option of buying and owning titles from the Sky Store as well as renting. Titles available to buy from launch include The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Life of Pi and over the coming weeks, The Wolf of Wall Street and Mandela will be arriving on Buy & Keep. 

As well as storing a digital copy on the hard drive of your Sky+HD box, Sky will also send you a physical DVD copy in the post. 

Sky Store Buy & Keep download to own service rolls out
Sky & Keep: Download to own movies directly on your Sky+HD box

Nicola Bamford, Director of Sky Store said, “Buying movies straight from your sofa becomes even easier with Sky Store from today. Our customers love to watch their favourite movies again and again, and with ‘Buy & Keep’ they get the benefit of being able to watch in minutes with the HD digital download, as well as receiving the original DVD in the post.” 

Once dispatched, DVDs should take 3-5 days to arrive in the post. While you’re able to download HD titles on a Buy & Keep basis, Sky sadly isn’t popping back up Blu-rays in the post yet. 

Prices will range from £7.99 to £13.99 per title. You’ll be able to rent the latest blockbusters from Sky Store as usual, but titles will only be available through Buy & Keep once the DVDs are released.

Sky says that speeds of 6Mbps or above are recommended to smoothly download films from Buy & Keep. Estimated download times aren’t given, but Sky says it can take several minutes before you can start watching if your connection speed is slower. 

If you find your Buy & Keep purchases jostling for position with recorded episodes of Game of Thrones and the like, you’ll be able to ‘archive’ films. This is a soft delete option which removes the bulk of the file from your hard drive but will allow you to re-download films again at no extra cost. 

When you archive a film, a small amount of data which acts as an identifying ticket, will be stored on the box, so it’s not the same as fully deleting everything – something to keep in mind if you’ve not yet upgraded to the 2TB box and you’re keen on storing lots of content. 

Eventually, other platforms that can access Sky Store, including YouView boxes, Roku devices and the Now TV Box will be able to make use of Buy & Keep. Non-Sky TV customers or anybody who rents films via the Sky Store website will also be able to Buy & Keep films at some point over the next year. 

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