Struggling to watch Sky TV tonight? You're not alone.
A major outage has left more than 30,000 customers across the UK unable to watch live television on Sky TV hardware, such as Sky Q. According to independent website DownDetector, which monitors activity on social media to track issues with websites and online services, the problems with Sky TV first flared-up around 9:20pm tonight (May 15). At the peak, over 33,000 people nationwide were complaining about the Sky TV outage.
The issues with the Sky TV service struck minutes before the second of two Eurovision semi-final nights were due to take place in the Swiss city of Basel. According to Sky TV subscribers, the widespread outage triggers an error message on the set-top box that reads: "You can't watch TV at the moment due to a connectivity problem."
Many viewers are having to power cycle — switch off, and back on again — their set-top box in an attempt to restore the paid-TV service. One person on X noted: "Loads reporting Sky TV boxes randomly turning themselves off and unable to turn on again without power cycling first."
The outage has sparked particular frustration among Eurovision fans. One seething Sky TV viewer wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "What a time for a nationwide Sky TV to go down during @Eurovision. Hope it comes back soon."
@SkyHelpTeam can you possibly give an update to the hundreds if not thousands of your customers who are having outage/random switch off problems with their Sky Q boxes? Please anyone with problems with their Sky Q service please like & comments thank you
— Matt Boddy (@boddy_mdb) May 15, 2025
There's clearly a serious nationwide problem with #SkyTV this evening but Sky have nothing about it on their website, X, Facebook or anywhere else. Very poor customercare @skytv .
— Alan Cleaver (@thelonningsguy) May 15, 2025
@SkyHelpTeam what the hell is going on with your sky Q boxes tonight, having to reset every 10 mins half the time it doesn't recognise the remote. Is sky the latest to be hacked or is it just bad maintenance or system upgrades?
— KYLE AUSTIN (@sadass1970) May 15, 2025
Other social media users have expressed similar dismay at the timing of the outage. "What's going on with #SkyTV? It's crashed twice. Seems others are reporting the same," another customer complained on X.
The technical problems appear to be widespread, with users across the country experiencing similar issues. Some have reported their boxes shutting down completely, while others are unable to access any content despite having functioning internet connections.
According to Sky TV subscribers sharing information in the Sky Help Forum, there is a way to revive your Sky Q box during the outage. One user, dubbed theradioguy, shared the following steps:
I went to settings. Preferences
Changed Standby to active.
Changed Smart Standby mode to OFF
If you're struggling to get into the Settings menu, due to the crashes — a power cycle might help. One user posted on the SKy Help Forum, explaining: "Turn off from mains. Plug in. Allow for box to load and quickly get into settings."
At the time of writing, Sky has not issued an official statement regarding the cause of the outage or provided an estimated time for when services might be restored to normal.
