It’s been a long time coming. After years of watching rivals like Netflix and Disney+ polish their interfaces while NOW stubbornly clung to its ageing design, Sky’s streaming service has finally undergone its most dramatic transformation yet.
The promised overhaul has now reached most major devices (including Fire TV sticks), bringing profiles, improved navigation, and a fresh visual identity to a platform that was starting to feel decidedly last-decade.
For subscribers who’ve battled with NOW’s clunky menus while trying to find the latest episode of The Last of Us or navigate to a Premier League match, this update represents more than just a cosmetic refresh – it’s a fundamental rethinking of how we interact with Sky’s streaming ecosystem.
But does this shiny new interface deliver the “world-class streaming experience” NOW promised back in January? Let’s take a quick look.
The Journey So Far
NOW, formerly known as NOW TV, has travelled quite a winding road since its 2012 launch.
Initially positioned as Sky’s answer to Netflix, the service has gradually evolved from a basic streaming platform to become a significant player in the UK streaming market, offering everything from premium entertainment and movies to live sports.
In recent years, NOW was beginning to show its age in terms of its features and interface, with streaming services around it becoming bigger and flashier – and even Sky had a new favoured streaming child – Sky Stream (and Sky Glass).
But the past year has been eventful for NOW. Last summer saw the introduction of Ultra Boost, which finally brought 4K Ultra HD streaming to the platform, along with HDR and Dolby Atmos support.
The pricing for most of NOW’s memberships, interestingly, has not changed in a few years – somewhat unusual for streaming services these days (then again, NOW is already pricier than many other streaming services, especially if you add Boost – but there are usually deals and discounts).
Then in January of this year, a major interface overhaul was announced – and this month, it finally arrived.
A Gradual Rollout
The interface update hasn’t exactly been swift. NOW began the rollout on February 18 with select Smart TVs, before gradually extending to smartphone apps on Android and iOS, then Roku and Apple TV devices.
Fire TV users finally received the update today (March 20) – completing the main phase of the rollout, with some devices (such as the new Google TV Streamer) still waiting their turn.
This major update migrates NOW to NBCUniversal’s Global Streaming Platform – the same technology that powers Peacock in the US and SkyShowtime in Europe.
This isn’t surprising given that both services (and Sky) are owned by Comcast.
Redesigned Homepage
The first thing you’ll notice is the completely revamped homepage. Navigation is indeed smoother, with nicer horizontally scrolling content rails replacing the somewhat clunky previous design.
Featured content is more prominently displayed, making it easier to spot new releases like or jump back into shows you’re currently watching.
The overall aesthetic is cleaner and more modern, bringing NOW more in line with competitors like Netflix and Disney+. Text is more readable, thumbnails are larger, and the whole experience feels less cluttered than before.
The main menu has moved to the left, instead of the top – something streaming services can’t seem to decide on, so they move it around every few years.
The promised Top 10 lists have materialised and work rather well, offering a quick glimpse of what’s popular across different categories.
This feature feels particularly useful for the Entertainment membership, where the sheer volume of content could previously feel overwhelming.
Search functionality has also been improved, with results appearing faster and more accurately.
Revamped Sports Sections
Sports fans will appreciate the new curated collections for specific events and tournaments.
The SkySports+ streams are now housed together, making it significantly easier to follow events like upcoming golf tournaments or Premier League matches.
The sports interface feels more thoughtfully organised overall, with clearer distinctions between live and on-demand content.
Profiles – Finally!
Perhaps the most welcome addition is the introduction of user profiles – up to six per account.
Each family member can now have their own personalised watchlist and recommendations, ending the bizarre situation where your crime documentaries, your partner’s reality shows, and your children’s cartoons all jumbled together in one confusing mess.
The profile setup process is straightforward, with easy switching between users.
Each profile maintains its own watch history and recommendations, which become more personalised over time, and of course – your own personal watchlist.
Kids Profiles
Parents will appreciate the dedicated Kids profiles, which provide access to over 10,000 episodes of ad-free children’s content.
The kids’ interface is appropriately simplified, with larger thumbnails and more visual navigation.
The parental controls work well, allowing you to restrict content based on age ratings and set viewing time limits – features that bring NOW up to speed with similar offerings from Netflix and Disney+.
Not All Smooth Sailing
Despite the generally positive changes, the rollout hasn’t been without issues.
Apple TV users have reported problems with HDR content, specifically related to the Match Dynamic Range feature. This causes HDR content to display in SDR even for subscribers with the Ultra Boost add-on – a frustrating technical hiccup that NOW needs to address.
Another significant downgrade affects all devices: you can no longer rewind for the previous 2 hours of broadcast content.
Instead, you can only rewind to the beginning of the current programme. This is particularly problematic for sports viewers, who often used this feature to catch up on matches in progress.
The complaints about this change have been loud across social media and various forums, suggesting NOW may have underestimated how valued this feature was.
UHD Support Still Limited
While the interface has been modernised, the technical limitations regarding UHD (4K) support remain unchanged on many devices.
4K content is still unavailable on Google TV, various Smart TV models (including those from Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hisense), some Roku TV models, NOW’s own Smart Box (which is no longer being sold), the EE TV Box Pro, and others.
This continued fragmentation of the viewing experience feels at odds with NOW’s push to position itself as a premium streaming service.
While understanding that older hardware has limitations, the lack of 4K support on relatively modern devices remains a significant drawback compared to competitors.
Is It Worth The Wait?
The new NOW interface undeniably represents a significant step forward for the service.
The refreshed design, improved navigation, and addition of profiles bring it more in line with what users have come to expect from premium streaming platforms in 2025.
That being said, NOW is still one of the more expensive streaming services available in the UK – once you combine Entertainment, Cinema, and at least one of the Boost tiers.
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The Freeview channels are all gone and guide for it and can’t pause and rewind either
This is only reason I got box
Now it’s useless to me
Overall the upgrade to the UI is really very welcome, with smother navigation and the TV guide, whilst still only Now/Next, is much improved. That said there are some areas which IMHO really need looking at on tvOS as I’m sure other platforms.
1. “Watch from Library” – when going to a show/film on the guide previously it offered the option to watch the item from the library meaning if the content was in 4K it displayed in the higher res format. – this has been replaced with a restart program option.
2. Guide on screen time-out – when scrolling through the guide, if you pause for too long to read (the very abridged) details the guide closes.
3. Guide content – still only Now/Next, it would be nice to see a full guide with more detailed program information. However 2 needs addressing before this.
4. Set reminders / add to watchlist from further ahead in the guide. Of course this is really only needed if a full guide were implemented.
5. Profile age ratings – These could do with being a far more granular, currently options are very limited with the “Family” rating (12) only content from children’s channels is available with most of it being a juvenile for most 12 year olds. This may however be more down to limitation of what content is available.
It certainly was interesting that within 48 hours of the initial update on tvOS there was a further update to the app. This does lead one to wonder if once all platforms are running on the new app they will be in a position to start making further improvement. That said creating a consistent user experience across the myriad of platforms must be rather fun for the devs. Ironically, taking a quick look at the WebOS version of the app, it doesn’t have the restart option and it’s certainly not as responsive nor is the picture quite as good as on the tvOS version. That said, it is a 2023 TV so that may be why it’s not as responsive.
It’s a monumental balls up. So many issues.
The Firestick app doesn’t output Atmos, only stereo.
The tvOS app doesn’t automatically switch to HDR like it used to and needs the Apple TV box to be set to 4K HDR.
They have ruined what was a perfectly useable app. Profiles are a pointless addition anyway. They’re a bunch of absolute idiots.
Bye bye NOW – you’re useless.
Just like Sky Stream Playlist hit n miss Comcast have now screwed up the continue watching feature for the ‘new’ NOW app on Apple TV. Over promoted poorly executed, ITVX all over again. So frustrating 🤨
Still as slow as ever for sports catchup availability. They really need to have catchup of sports events available as soon as it has finished or at least within an hour or so.