If you're stuck watching Sky in only one room of the home, you're really not making the most of the TV platform's ecosystem. Because whether you have Sky Q, Sky Glass or Sky Stream, you can easily bring more rooms into the viewing party, effectively adding another subscription for a fraction of the price.
You can even set specific parental controls for each room, so you can restrict what the kids watch without affecting your own viewing.
Here's how to get Sky in multiple rooms of your home.
Sky Q: Sky Multiscreen
Sky Q customers looking to watch in more than one room will need Sky Multiscreen. This brings your Sky package to more TVs – you can watch all channels to which you subscribe in any room you like.
To do so, you'll need the Sky Multiscreen add-on, which costs £15 a month (on top of your regular subscription). This includes one Sky Q Mini box, which you plug into a TV's HDMI port and lets you watch Sky in that room. Every Sky Q Mini box comes with its own voice-control-supporting remote.
You can buy extra Sky Q Mini boxes for £50 each for a maximum of four per Sky Q box, though only two of them can be used at the same time (or one if you're using a non-Ultra HD Sky Q box).
To break that down, with the Sky Q 1TB box, you can watch TV on that box and on one Sky Q Mini box at the same time. And with the Sky Q 1TB Ultra HD or Sky Q 2TB UHD boxes, you can watch TV on that box and on two Sky Q Mini boxes at the same time.
Sky Q customers can also watch in multiple rooms using Sky Go Extra, which we'll explain further down this article.
Sky Glass/Sky Stream: Whole Home
If you take your Sky without a satellite dish through either Sky Glass or Sky Stream, you'll need the Whole Home add-on and extra devices on which to watch. These are either Sky Glass TVs or Sky Stream pucks.
Whole Home is £12 a month (on top of your Sky Glass/Stream subscription), plus a one-off set-up fee of £39.95. That includes one Sky Stream puck – each subsequent one is another £50 plus the set-up fee of £39.95. You don't actually own these Sky Stream pucks – they'll have to go back to Sky if you terminate your contract.
You can also add more Sky Glass TVs to your home, but of course this will be more expensive than the pucks.
Whole Home lets you watch different shows on different TVs at the same time. All your Sky channels are available on each TV. You can watch on up to six Sky Stream pucks and three Sky Glass TVs in one household.
If you think adding Sky Stream pucks is a bit pricey, there is another way to watch Sky in multiple rooms...
Sky Go Extra
Sky Go is the free mobile app that lets you watch live and on-demand content where you have mobile reception or a wi-fi connection. It's available to all Sky subscribers, but Sky Multiscreen/Whole Home customers get Sky Go Extra thrown in.
This adds the ability to download shows to your mobile device, computer or games console to watch offline. Sky Q customers can also remotely set their Sky Q box to record from their device using Sky Go Extra.
Sky Go Extra comes included as part of Multiscreen and Whole Home, or Sky Q customers can pay £5 extra for it instead of taking out Multiscreen as a cheaper way to watch on more screens. With the UHD Sky Q boxes, you can watch Sky Go Extra on two extra devices as well as the main Sky Q box, so you could watch on two games consoles in different rooms and effectively have Sky Q in three rooms of the house for just £5 extra a month – a lot cheaper than Sky Multiscreen plus £50 for each Sky Q Mini box.
Sky Multiscreen FAQ
What is Sky Multiscreen?
Sky Multiscreen is Sky's multi-room solution for Sky Q – a way of extending your Sky subscription to more TVs around the home. If you take Sky through your broadband connection with Sky Glass or Sky Stream, the equivalent service is called Sky Whole Home.
How much does Sky Multiscreen cost?
Sky Multiscreen costs £15 a month, on top of your Sky Q subscription. Sky Whole Home is £12 a month – again, on top of your existing Sky subscription.
How does Sky Multiscreen work?
In order to have Sky in multiple rooms in the house, Sky Multiscreen allows up to four Mini boxes to be added to your main Sky Q box setup. These Mini boxes communicate wirelessly with the Sky Q box, allowing members of the household to watch whatever TV they like on up to four TVs in the home. What's more, the Sky Q Mini boxes double as a kind of broadband booster, acting like a Wi-Fi hotspot to strengthen your network connection.
This is much better than Sky's former multiroom option, called simply 'Sky Multiscreen', which required users to have proper Sky boxes in each room and each connected to their satellite dish.
Will Sky Q Mini work without a subscription?
No, you'll need a Sky Multiscreen subscription in order to use your Sky Q Mini boxes.
MORE:
Sky Stream vs Sky Q: what are the differences? Which is better?
Sky Glass vs Sky Q: which Sky service is right for you?
Here are the best TVs you can buy right now
