Sky Essential TV: What Channels Do You Get & What’s Missing?

Sky has launched a £15 Essential TV plan with Sky Atlantic, Netflix and Discovery+. Find out what’s included & how it compares to Ultimate TV.

If you’re signing up for a Sky Stream box or a Sky Glass TV in the UK, there’s now a choice of two different television plans. Sky’s new entry-level plan is known as Essential TV and it starts from £15 per month on a 24-month contract.

With Essential TV, you’ll get the flagship Sky Atlantic channel, along with Netflix, Discovery+, and about 85 other channels. However, you won’t get Sky’s other entertainment channels, or some other premium TV channels like those from National Geographic or Comedy Central.

In this article, we’ll review Sky’s new Essential TV plan, including all of the channels you’ll get with it. We’ll also look at what’s missing compared to their Ultimate TV plan, and how to get the best deal on Essential TV.

Plans From:	£15 per month (price may change during contract)
What’s Included?	Sky Atlantic & approx. 85 other channels Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard Sky Stream box
What’s Missing?	Sky Entertainment channels National Geographic, Comedy Central, U&alibi, and more… Most international channels
Works With:	Sky Stream & Sky Glass (new customers only)

Sky Essential TV Channels

In the UK, Sky now offers an Essential TV plan, which is available for a reduced price of £15 per month. This is compared to their Ultimate TV plan which costs £22 per month.

With Essential TV, you’ll get Sky’s flagship entertainment channel, Sky Atlantic. This channel has their most popular shows, including imports from the USA. Alongside that, you’ll get a Netflix ‘Standard with Ads’ membership, along with discovery+ Standard, and about 85 other channels. This includes free-to-air channels, as well as some paid-for channels like those from Eurosport and Discovery.

The following table shows a list of the live channels that you’ll get included with Essential TV:

According to Sky, there are officially more than 100 channels included on the Essential TV plan. However, this number includes a lot of regional variations (think BBC One Wales, BBC One Scotland, etc). In addition, there are some region-only channels (e.g. for customers in Northern Ireland). As such, we think it’s more realistic to use a figure of 87 channels, based on the table above for a customer living in England.

On top of the Essential TV plan, you can add the normal range of packs for additional channels like Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, and TNT Sports. In our opinion, this is a major benefit as it gives you a cheaper way to access some of that additional content (e.g. you can now get the Sky Sports channels without needing to pay for all of the Ultimate TV channels).

What’s Missing From Essential TV?

Compared to the Ultimate TV plan which costs £22 per month, there are 42 channels that are missing from Essential TV. Most notably, that’s Sky’s other entertainment channels like Sky Witness, Sky Comedy, and Sky Max. You’ll also miss out on Comedy Central, Crime + Investigations, the National Geographic channels, U&alibi, and U&GOLD. Many international channels are also missing from Essential TV.

The following table shows the list of 42 channels that are missing from Essential TV:

It’s worth noting that some of these channels are available when add the ‘Sky Cinema’ pack to Essential TV. That’s because the Comedy Central and MTV channels are available on Paramount+ (included at no extra cost when you take the Sky Cinema pack). Meanwhile, the National Geographic channels are also available to you through the Disney+ app, if you have a Disney+ subscription.

Is Essential TV Any Good?

In our opinion, it’s great news that Sky have launched the Essential TV plan, especially now that it’s available at a low price of just £15 per month. It comes with Sky Atlantic, which is undoubtedly the jewel in their crown, and which is possibly the main reason that many people choose to sign up for Sky. There’s also Netflix and Discovery+ included, as part of the price.

If you’d like to break out the £15 fee, you’d normally pay £4.99 per month for ‘Netflix Standard with Ads’ and another £6.99 per month for Discovery+ Standard. As such, you’re effectively paying £3 per month for access to Sky Atlantic, along with a Sky Stream box and a number of other channels through the service.

Do bear in mind, however, that this is comparing a 24-month contract from Sky to a one-month rolling plan from Netflix and Discovery+. As such, you’ll be committing to a contract on Sky and you’ll lose a bit of flexibility, compared to buying it direct from each provider.

Should I Get Ultimate TV or Essential TV?

At present, the Ultimate TV plan will cost you £22 per month, so there’s a pretty big saving available with Essential TV.

The main question to ask is whether you’d like to have access to Sky’s other entertainment channels, like Sky Witness and Sky Max. If these channels aren’t important to you, you might be better off on an Essential TV plan. There’s also U&alibi, U&GOLD, and a number of other channels to consider.

If you’d like National Geographic, this may also be available to you via a Disney+ subscription. Meanwhile, if you like the Comedy Central and MTV channels, these are available through Paramount+ (which is included at no extra cost when you add the Sky Cinema pack to your Essential TV plan). You’ll currently pay £23 per month for Essential TV and Sky Cinema.

Essential TV Deals

At present, Sky’s Essential TV plan is available from £15 per month. You can choose between a 24-month contract and a 31-day rolling contract:

Service	Broadband & TV	Monthly Cost (may rise during contract)
Sky Stream, Essential TV & Netflix Sky Stream	Essential TV & Netflix Sky Atlantic Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard Broadband not included	£15.00 per month No upfront fee 24 month contract	See deal
Sky Stream, Essential TV & Netflix (31 day) Sky Stream	Essential TV & Netflix Sky Atlantic Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard Broadband not included	£18.00 per month No upfront fee 1 month contract	See deal

For the Essential TV plan on Sky Stream, you’ll need to have a fibre broadband connection with an average download speed of 25Mbps or more. Your broadband can be with any UK provider (including BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Virgin Media or Vodafone).

If you’re looking to renew your home broadband provider, there can be some savings available when you take Sky Broadband together with Essential TV:

Service	Broadband & TV	Monthly Cost (may rise during contract)
Sky Stream, Essential TV & Netflix with Full Fibre 75 Broadband Sky Full Fibre 75 Sky Stream	75Mbps average download Essential TV & Netflix Sky Atlantic Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard	£39.00 per month No upfront fee 24 month contract	See deal
Sky Stream, Essential TV & Netflix with Full Fibre 150 Broadband Sky Full Fibre 150 Sky Stream	150Mbps average download Essential TV & Netflix Sky Atlantic Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard	£40.00 per month No upfront fee 24 month contract	See deal
Sky Stream, Essential TV & Netflix with Full Fibre 500 Broadband Sky Full Fibre 500 Sky Stream	500Mbps average download Essential TV & Netflix Sky Atlantic Netflix Standard with Ads Discovery+ Standard	£45.00 per month No upfront fee 24 month contract	See deal

More Information

For more information about Essential TV, please see Sky’s official website. You can also read our overview of all Sky Stream deals.