Earlier this week, Sky unbundled its sports channels, enabling customers to sign up for individual channels at a reduced cost, rather than having to take all of them. Sky customers can now get one Sky Sports channel for £18 per month, two for £22, or three for £26. The full package of 10 channels costs £27.50 per month.

While the unbundling looks like good news for customers who have a passion for one sport and don’t want to have to pay for others they are less interested in, the move has caused issues with the Sky Go app. This is the app that enables Sky customers to access the channels they have subscribed to on devices other than their TV that their Sky box is attached so, such as their mobile, tablet or PC.

As far as we can ascertain, the issue is not affecting existing Sky customers, just new customers who are waiting to have their Sky dish and set top box installed. When a new customer signs up – as I did a few days ago – they are sent a confirmation email that states: “ While waiting for your set up, you can now view the amazing TV Sky has to offer, via the Sky Go app. This is available to you from when you placed your order with us for up to 30 days or until your Sky TV is set up, whichever is sooner.”

Yesterday, however, new customers who tried to watch The Open golf tournament on their phone via the Sky Go app were met with a message saying: “To enjoy this service, please upgrade your subscription.” Oddly, prior to yesterday, I had been able to access the Sports channels, as well as some movie channels that I am not signed up to, via the Sky Go app on my phone.

When I spoke to Sky customer services about the issue yesterday, I was told that the unbundling had indeed caused issues that had only come to light “within the last couple of hours”. The agent also told me that Sky was working hard to fix the problem and that customers affected by it would be notified by a text message when it had been fixed.

We contacted the Sky press office this morning to seek clarification on the issue, no response as yet.

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