Some Irish users of Sky’s broadband and television services may have been confused to learn they were relocated, in a virtual sense at least, to the London suburb of Croydon earlier this month.
As a result of what Sky described as an issue with “third-party commercial databases” the customers suddenly found themselves blocked from accessing streaming services that can only be used by those living in a specific country.
Impacted users told The Irish Times that as well as being denied access to content from the national broadcaster and other streaming services, they also had to endure significant time lags when changing channels, with the Sky system appearing to struggle to work out exactly where they were.
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“Early last week Sky did an update on their systems [and] my IP address now reads as being in Croydon in London,” said Brian Flynn, one customer who was left without an adequate broadband service for several days this month.
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He told The Irish Times he was denied access to several apps including the RTÉ Player and Now TV as they thought he was in Croydon when he was actually in his Dublin home. “Another knock-on is that it takes 10-15 seconds to change channel on the TV,” he said.
When he raised the issue with Sky, he was assured the issue would be resolved within 24 hours but “four days later I still have an IP address in Croydon”, he said.
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Another reader in Greystones had the same issue and found he was repeatedly blocked from accessing the RTÉ Player.
A Sky spokeswoman said that “a small number – less than 1 per cent – of Sky broadband customers experienced an issue accessing content which is geo-restricted to Ireland.”
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