Sky's Ad Skipping pack lets you skip or fast-forward through adverts on on-demand content, paused live TV and selected apps including ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player.
On Sky's own on-demand, a one-tap 'Skip Ads' button jumps you past ad breaks. On paused live TV and apps you'll need to fast-forward manually.
It doesn't remove adverts - it just makes them easier to get past. And if you're watching live TV without a pause delay, you can't skip anything at all.
Quick answer: Sky Ad Skipping - the essentials
Sky Ad Skipping is an optional add-on for Sky TV customers, costing £6 a month on a 31-day rolling contract.
It works on Sky on-demand content, paused live TV, and within the ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player apps. On Sky's own on-demand, a one-tap 'Skip Ads' button clears ad breaks instantly. Everywhere else, you fast-forward manually.
It doesn't work on live TV, Sky Go, and it doesn't cover Netflix, Disney+, Discovery+, Amazon Prime or YouTube. Crucially, it doesn't remove adverts - it just gives you a faster way past them.
Decision summary: For those who mostly watch on-demand, it takes the edge off ad breaks with the 'Skip Ads' button removing the need to fast-forward. But if most of your viewing is live TV or third-party streaming apps, the value case is thin.
How does Sky Ad Skipping work?
Sky Ad Skipping is available on Sky Stream and Sky Glass only. You can add it through the My Sky app, online, or via your remote by pressing Home, scrolling to My Sky, and selecting Shop.
The experience splits into two tiers depending on what you're watching. On Sky's own on-demand content - catch-up, box sets, Sky originals - a 'Skip Ads' button appears in the bottom right of the screen when an ad break starts. One tap and you're past it, with no manual input required.
Everything else requires fast-forwarding manually. On paused live TV, Restart and Watch from Start, you can fast-forward through ad breaks up to 30x speed using the right button on your remote - pressing again to speed up, or pressing and holding to jump to a specific point. The same applies in the ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player apps, though the experience isn't consistent across all three. In ITVX, you need to press the centre/OK button on the fast-forward icon before the right button responds. In Channel 4, a single press skips 10 seconds at a time.
The practical frustration with manual fast-forwarding is knowing when to stop. Go too slowly and you're sitting through the ads anyway; overshoot and you're back into the show mid-scene and reaching for rewind. Our own hands-on testing found this genuinely disruptive - the interruption itself is hard to avoid even with the pack.
On Sky Glass, voice control offers a cleaner workaround for Sky content. Say "Hello Sky, fast forward 30 seconds" - or however many seconds you want to skip - hands-free within four metres of the TV. On Sky Stream, press and hold the Voice button on the remote and do the same. Voice control isn't supported in ITVX, Channel 4 or STV Player, so manual fast-forwarding remains the only option in those apps.
What doesn't Sky Ad Skipping cover?
Ad Skipping doesn't work on live TV at all. If you're watching a channel in real time, there's no way to skip or fast-forward through ad breaks - you'd need to pause first and let a delay build up, at which point you can fast-forward through ads up until you're back in line with the live broadcast.
It also doesn't extend to Sky's bundled streaming apps. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Discovery+ and Hayu are all included on Essential or Ultimate TV at their standard, ad-supported tiers by default - and Sky's Ad Skipping pack does nothing to change that. Ads on those services are governed by whichever subscription tier you're on. We look at the cost of upgrading to ad-free across all of Sky's bundled apps below.
Outside of ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player, other third-party apps on Sky Glass and Sky Stream - YouTube, Spotify and similar - are also excluded.
Ad Skipping is also limited to Sky Glass and Sky Stream hardware. If you watch Sky content through the Sky Go app - on a phone, tablet or laptop - Ad Skipping doesn't apply, and ads on on-demand content can't be skipped or fast-forwarded.
How much does Sky Ad Skipping cost?
Sky Ad Skipping costs £6 a month and is available as a 31-day rolling add-on - there's no minimum contract term. You can add it through the My Sky app, online at sky.com, or via your Sky remote.
Cancellation requires 31 days' notice, so if you want to trial it for a single month, cancel immediately after adding it to avoid being charged for a second month.
Ad Skipping can be added to any Sky Glass or Sky Stream subscription. Current Sky TV packages are below.
| Package | Includes | Monthly price | Upfront price | Contract term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Sky Essential TV | Netflix, Sky Atlantic, Discovery+ | £15 | Free | 24 months |
 Offer: Free setup (worth £39.95) | |||||
|
Sky Ultimate TV | Netflix, Sky Atlantic, Discovery+, Sky Entertainment, Disney+, Hayu, HBO Max | £24 | Free | 24 months |
| Offer: Save £11/mth on Sky Ultimate TV + Free setup (worth £39.95) | |||||
Read more about Sky TV packages and the differences between Essential and Ultimate TV.
How much does it cost to remove all ads on Sky?
Every streaming app bundled into Sky Essential and Ultimate TV comes at its ad-supported tier by default. Sky's Ad Skipping pack doesn't change this; it only covers Sky's own on-demand content and the ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player apps. Removing ads from bundled streaming services means upgrading each one individually.
The table below shows what's included with each plan, whether an ad-free upgrade exists, and what it costs.
| App | Included on | Included tier | Ad-free upgrade? | Upgrade cost via Sky |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | Essential & Ultimate | Standard with Ads | Yes | +£6/month (Standard) or +£11/month (Premium, 4K) |
| Disney+ | Essential & Ultimate | Standard with Ads | Yes | +£4/month (Standard) or +£9/month (Premium, 4K) |
| HBO Max | Ultimate only | Basic with Ads | Yes | +£4/month (Standard) or +£9/month (Premium, 4K) |
| Hayu | Ultimate only | Ad-free | N/A - already ad-free | Included |
| Discovery+ | Essential & Ultimate | Entertainment (with ads) | No | No ad-free tier available |
Hayu is the exception - it's the only bundled app that comes ad-free as standard. Discovery+ sits at the other end: ads are present on all UK plans and there's no paid tier to remove them. If you wanted to go fully ad-free across Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max, upgrading all three to their standard ad-free tiers would add £14 a month to your Sky bill.
Sky's Ad Skipping pack works within ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player - but only lets you fast-forward through ads manually. If you want to remove them entirely, each app offers its own paid ad-free tier.
| App | Ad-free tier | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| ITVX | ITVX Premium | £5.99/month |
| All4 | Channel 4+ | £3.99/month |
| STV Player | STV Player Premium | £3.99/month |
Subscribing to these directly removes ads entirely - no fast-forwarding required. Combined, that's £13.97 a month, compared to £6 for Sky's Ad Skipping pack, which covers all three apps plus Sky's own on-demand content. The trade-off is whether partial coverage at a lower price is worth more to you than complete ad removal at a higher one.
Sky Ad Skipping vs NOW Boost
NOW is Sky's budget streaming service, and it handles ads very differently. NOW Boost costs £6 a month - the same price as Sky's Ad Skipping pack - but removes ads from on-demand content entirely. No fast-forwarding, no skip button, no interruption at all.
The reason NOW can do this is straightforward: it only carries Sky's own content, so Sky controls the ad inventory and can simply switch ads off for Boost subscribers. Sky Stream is a broader platform, bundling third-party apps where Sky doesn't own the ad relationships - and that's a genuine constraint when it comes to ITVX, Channel 4 and the rest.
For Sky's own on-demand content, though, the constraint doesn't apply. Sky removes ads from that same content on NOW. On Stream, the decision not to do the same is a commercial one, not a technical limitation. The Skip Ads button is more convenient than fast-forwarding, but it's still an interruption you're paying to manage rather than eliminate.
NOW Boost also upgrades your NOW experience beyond just ad removal - it adds Full HD streaming, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and two simultaneous streams. For NOW subscribers on the standard single-stream plan, that's a meaningful upgrade. For Sky Stream customers considering a switch, it's worth noting that Full HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 are already standard on Sky - so the practical gain is the two simultaneous streams.
The trade-off is scope. NOW is a narrower service - no third-party app integration, no live pause or restart ad-skipping, and a smaller overall content library than Sky Stream. If your priority is ad-free on-demand viewing of Sky content, NOW with Boost makes a strong case. If you want the full Sky platform with live TV, third-party apps and broader content, Ad Skipping is the only option - with all its limitations.
Is Sky Ad Skipping worth it?
For heavy on-demand viewers, Sky Ad Skipping is a genuine improvement over watching without it. The one-tap Skip Ads button on Sky's own content is quick and largely painless - and if most of your watching is Sky box sets and catch-up, £6 a month is a reasonable price for removing the friction of ad breaks.
The case weakens the more your viewing shifts towards live TV or third-party streaming apps. Ad Skipping does nothing on live broadcasts, and the manual fast-forward experience on ITVX, Channel 4 and STV Player is inconsistent and fiddly enough that several users find it more disruptive than helpful. If that's where most of your time is spent, it's hard to justify the cost.
It's also worth being clear about what Ad Skipping is - and isn't. It doesn't remove ads. It gives you tools to get past them faster, with varying degrees of success depending on what you're watching. And it does nothing for Sky's bundled streaming apps - Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Discovery+ all require their own separate upgrades to go ad-free, on top of anything you pay for Ad Skipping.
At £6 a month, you're paying for convenience, not ad-free viewing. For those who want to go further, the alternatives are more targeted. ITVX Premium (£5.99/month) and Channel 4+ (£3.99/month) remove ads entirely from those apps - and if those are your most-watched services, either subscription does a cleaner job than Ad Skipping alone. NOW with Boost is the strongest alternative for Sky content specifically, offering true ad removal at the same price.
Ad Skipping makes most sense as an add-on for subscribers who watch a broad mix of Sky on-demand and broadcast catch-up, and who find the interruption of ads genuinely disruptive. For everyone else, the money is probably better spent on a targeted ad-free subscription for the app you actually use most.
The future: will Sky ever go fully ad-free?
The direction of travel across streaming is clear. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, ITVX and Channel 4 all now operate tiered models where paying more removes ads entirely. Sky's approach feels more like a legacy of the linear TV era - where fast-forwarding through a recorded ad break was the best available option. The irony is that Ad Skipping doesn't even work on live TV, the format it most resembles.
The technical argument for why Sky Stream can't go fully ad-free doesn't fully hold up. Sky controls the ad inventory on its own on-demand content and removes it on NOW. The barrier on Stream isn't technical - it's commercial. And the commercial logic is increasingly hard to follow: Sky is already charging £6 a month for Ad Skipping, which is the same price as NOW Boost - a product that actually removes ads. At that price point, the comparison is less favourable to Sky.
The bundled streaming apps are a more complex picture. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Discovery+ are all included at their ad-supported tiers by default - and Sky already handles billing for most of them directly. The infrastructure to offer ad-free tiers isn't the barrier. The more likely explanation is commercial inertia: renegotiating terms with Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max to bundle ad-free access into a single add-on is complex, and Sky may have little incentive to do so when it already sells ad-free upgrades for each app individually through its marketplace.
Where Ad Skipping feels most anachronistic is against those same bundled apps. A fast-forward button on ITVX is a minor convenience. The same functionality on Netflix, Disney+ or HBO Max - where most Sky customers arguably spend the most time - would be far more valuable. As it stands, Ad Skipping leaves the services people use most entirely untouched.
What Sky customers would arguably benefit from most is a cleaner ad-free tier for Sky's own on-demand content - box sets, originals, catch-up - bringing Stream closer to what NOW already offers. Whether we see that depends partly on competitive pressure. As true ad-free tiers become the norm across streaming, a fast-forward button for £6 a month looks like an increasingly hard sell.
Read more about Sky
If you're weighing up Sky TV more broadly, these guides cover the key decisions:
- Sky TV packages - Essential vs Ultimate, what's included and current deals
- Sky Stream Puck review - hands-on with the hardware
- Sky Glass review - the all-in-one TV option
- Sky Stream hands-on review - real-world experience of the platform
- What streaming services are included with Sky? - Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and more
- NOW TV vs Sky TV - how Sky's budget service compares
