All Sky Q viewers awarded FREE gift after nationwide TV outage, but time is running out to spend £20 credit

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Sky has been sending emails to affected customers, saying: "We're extremely sorry if you experienced disruption to your Sky Q services recently. We're gifting you a Sky Store Buy & Keep movie — it's our way of saying thank you for bearing with us."

The offer expires on Saturday May 31 — so you'll need to act quickly to claim your free film. Once you've chosen a title in the Sky Store, it'll be yours to keep forever. Some films in the Sky Store offer both a digital download for your Sky Q box, and a DVD or Blu-ray disc sent out in the post.

Earlier this month, Sky experienced a "technical issue caused some Sky Q boxes to enter standby mode," leaving viewers unable to watch television for several hours. Subscribers flooded social media and the Sky Help Forums with complaints about the issue, which left them staring at a blank screen.

Sky Q boxes have two standby modes, either Active or Eco. The latter consumes the smallest amount of energy and is designed to kick in between 2.30am and 5:45am. It takes a few minutes to wake-up the Sky Q box from this state, while Active is designed to be a faster boot-up and allows recordings to continue to take place in the background.

While the glitch was fixed within a few hours, Sky quickly issued advice to all impacted Sky Q owners to reboot their hardware.

Switching the Sky Q box off and on again, known as "power-cycling", forces the device to look for new software updates. As such, the fix rolled-out by the engineers at Sky could then be installed. In case Sky Q subscribers had missed this crucial advice, Sky sent out a text message.

The SMS, first spotted by the team at the Daily Express, reads: "We're extremely sorry if you experienced issues with your Sky Q services recently. These issues have been fixed. If you're still having trouble, please switch off your box at the mains for 30 seconds, then back on.

"For mini box issues, also reboot the main box."

The British broadcaster has assured customers they are "taking every step to make sure it doesn't happen again," acknowledging how "frustrating it can be to lose access to your favourite shows and channels."

Want to claim your free Sky Store film? Check the your inbox for an email from Sky about the offer, which has been sent out to subscribers who were impacted by the widespread Sky Q outage. Alternatively, you can go directly to the homepage on your Sky Q box, and head to the Sky Store.

Once there, look for the Your Sky Store Gift On Us tile, which should be at the top of the Sky Store screen. Click on this tile to browse the available movies. The free movie selection includes a range of popular blockbusters to choose from, including Bullet Train, Jumanji: The Next Level, Les Misérables, Venom, Gladiator II, Bridesmaids and The Equalizer.

Why does it work so well? Over time, small glitches, memory leaks, or minor software bugs can build up, especially if a device has been running for days, weeks, or even months without a restart.

These issues can cause sluggishness, connectivity problems, or odd behaviour like menus freezing or remote controls becoming unresponsive.

Power-cycling forces the device to shut down completely — wiping its short-term memory (RAM), closing stuck processes, and refreshing internal components. It's like giving your device a clean slate, without touching your saved data or reinstalling anything. Think of it as rebooting your brain with a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t fix everything, but it solves a surprising number of problems.

Since Sky engineers have issued a fix — or rolled-back the problematic software update behind the glitch — power-cycling your Sky Q box today has the benefit of forcing the operating system to check for updates while rebooting.

How to Power-Cycle Your Sky Q Box

If your Sky Q box is still suffering from the Standby error and you're unable to watch live television or anything stored in your Recordings — a proper power-cycle could be just the fix. Representatives from Sky have issued the following advice across social media, on its forums, and now, via text message.

Here's a quick step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Turn off your Sky Q box

Press the standby button on your Sky Q remote or on the front of the box itself to power it down. Wait until the light on the front turns red — this confirms it's in standby mode.

Step 2: Unplug the box from the mains

Locate the power cable and unplug it from the wall socket or power strip. This is key — simply putting the box in standby doesn't fully reset it.

Step 3: Wait at least 30 seconds

This brief pause gives the internal memory time to fully clear and ensures any residual power in the circuits is discharged.

Step 4: Plug it back in

Reconnect the power cable to the mains and switch the socket back on.

Step 5: Wait for the box to reboot

You’ll see the Sky Q box go through its startup sequence. Give it a minute or two to fully boot up. The front light will go green when it's ready.

Step 6: Turn it back on

Use your remote to turn the box back on. You should now be back in business — and hopefully, whatever issue you were experiencing has been resolved.