Dan Howdle | October 11th, 2022

Sky Atlantic: How to watch

Game Of Thrones may be over, but Sky Atlantic is still Sky's jewel in the crown – one of the best reasons to subscribe to Sky TV over any other competing service. But what if you're with another provider? Are there other ways to watch it?

Sky Atlantic

Sky Atlantic providers

Provider Sky Atlantic NOW TV App
Sky TV Yes Yes
Virgin Media TV No No
BT TV No Yes
NOW TV Yes Yes
TalkTalk TV No Yes

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Virgin Media TV

Unfortunately there's no way to watch Sky Atlantic on Virgin TV as a listed channel the way you would watch it on Sky. However, that's not to say there is no way to watch it at all if you're with Virgin Media. You just need to be prepared to employ a little trickery.

That’s where Sky’s streaming service, NOW TV, comes in. Although you cannot watch NOW TV via your Virgin Media 360 or Stream box, you can use your mobile, tablet, Smart TV, games console, streaming device (think Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV and so on) to get instant access to Sky Atlantic, just by signing up to the NOW TV Entertainment Membership.

That's not to say that Virgin TV is necessarily a bad choice if your aim is to watch Sky Atlantic. It's an arguably better subscription TV service than Sky's – it's just missing this one thing. And it's a thing you can work around, so long as you're prepared to pay a small additional monthly fee. Here's some more information on NOW TV.

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NOW TV on Virgin Media

The NOW Entertainment Membership gets you these live entertainment channels: Sky Max, Sky Showcase, Sky Witness, Sky Atlantic, Sky Comedy, Sky Documentaries, Sky History, Sky Nature, Gold, Sky Crime, Comedy Central, Sky Arts, MTV, Sky Sci-Fi, Alibi and NBC News NOW. You also get on-demand shows from all of these channels (except Sky Showcase and NBC News NOW), plus Peacock (which is an on-demand only channel). The bad news is if you're only after Sky Atlantic and you're on Virgin TV, you're going to be paying extra for a lot of duplicate content. Then again it really doesn't cost much so you'll have to weigh the costs and benefits as they apply to you.

NOW Entertainment also includes six live kids' channels: Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Cartoonito, Nick Jr and Nicktoons. Plus, on-demand shows are available for all these channels except Cartoonito. And you get brilliant box sets from Milkshake!, CBeebies and CBBC too.

NOW TV memberships automatically renew every 30 days until you cancel, so you can get your premium TV fix and keep the flexibility to cancel at any time without having to sign up to a long contract. As a new customer you'll get a 7-day free trial of NOW TV Boost, which allows you to watch on more than one device, in Full HD and with surround sound. After the free trial, Boost costs £5 per month.

If you're only interested in one show, and you're unlikely to dive into the 300 other box sets on offer, it's always worth timing it exactly so your sign-up coincides as closely as possible with the first episode and ends with the last. Then, when your favourite series ends, or if you just get bored, you can unsubscribe from your NOW TV Entertainment Membership at any time.

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Sky TV

Sky owns, manages and runs Sky Atlantic so it makes sense to sign up to get the best experience. If you want to take advantage of all the gloriously detailed scenery that Westeros has to offer, you can watch Sky Atlantic in glorious 4K Ultra HD with a Sky TV subscription.

The basic ‘Sky Q, Sky TV & Netflix’ bundle is the provider's cheapest TV package but still offers you 300 channels to choose from, including Sky Atlantic. You'll have to sign up to a minimum-term contract of 18 months so it's certainly not as flexible as buying a NOW TV Entertainment Membership.

You'll get a Sky Q set-top box in the post (unless you choose to sign up to Sky Glass, in which case you will have to be in for the delivery and engineer). All you have to do is connect it to your TV, and you're set and ready to watch. There's also the benefit of Sky Go, which comes for free with any Sky TV subscription and lets you watch Sky Atlantic on your mobile, tablet, laptop or through a games console.

You can watch Sky Go anywhere you can get an internet connection, whether that's on your home wi-fi, public wi-fi, or over your mobile network. If you're using your phone's data allowance by streaming Sky Go over mobile, just be careful and keep an eye on how much data you're using; streaming Sky Atlantic with Sky Go will drain your data like nobody's business.

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NOW TV

If you have a compatible device, you can watch Sky Atlantic through a NOW TV Entertainment Membership and take your favourite shows with you wherever you go. If you're on a tablet, or Android or iOS smartphone and you want to watch your NOW TV Entertainment Membership on the move, you'll need to download the NOW TV app from Google Play Store or from the App Store. The NOW TV app no longer supports iOS versions below 13. If your iOS device uses earlier versions, you might still be able to watch for as long as the app works for you, but you won't receive any updates like new features and bug fixes. If your device supports later iOS versions, you'll need to update to 13 or later. For Windows or Mac laptops you'll just need to download the NOW Player desktop app.

Extra devices supported by NOW TV include the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5, as well as LG (not 2014 or 2015 versions), Sony (running Android OS 8.0 or later), HiSense and Samsung smart TVs (2016 models and later. No Samsung Serif TVs at all), streaming devices like the NOW TV smart box and Smart Stick, all models of the Roku boxes and players, Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd gen or later), BT TV Box, Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd gen), Chromecast (2nd gen or later), Apple TV HD (4th gen) or 4K, and the YouView Box (model numbers DTR-T1000, DTR-T1010 and Talk Talk's DN370T box are no longer supported.

BT TV

Sky Atlantic is available on your BT TV set-top box via the NOW TV app, for which you will need an additional subscription. This is obviously a step up from Virgin TV in this respect, though, as you won't need any additional devices to access the app, just your BT TV YouView+ box, or the BBC iPlayer app.

TalkTalk TV

Since BT TV and TalkTalk TV use the same YouView set-top boxes, it stands to reason you can also watch NOW TV on TalkTalk TV. Be aware that the DTR-T1000, DTR-T1010 and Talk Talk's DN370T YouView boxes are no longer supported. You can't get the channel directly, but instead will be able to load the NOW TV app onto your set-top box and access the content from there after purchasing the Entertainment Membership.

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Frequently asked questions

Can I use a NOW TV Entertainment Membership on YouView?

If you subscribe to BT TV or TalkTalk TV, you’ll have a YouView set-top box in order to access digital TV. Thanks to the recent agreement between Sky and BT, you can watch NOW via your YouView device, giving you access to all four NOW TV memberships: Entertainment, Cinema, Sports, and Hayu. Be aware that the DTR-T1000, DTR-T1010 and Talk Talk's DN370T YouView boxes are no longer supported.

If you're a YouView user, you can also access live channels included with the different passes through the NOW TV Player, and BT TV customers will have the option to record the NOW live channels available through the TV guide, offering you access to the widest choice of the very best TV shows, films and sport available.

How much does Sky Atlantic cost?

There is not one specific price for the channel on its own as Sky Atlantic comes bundled together with other entertainment channels through a Sky TV subscription or through NOW TV's Entertainment Membership.

Can I get Sky Atlantic on demand?

Yes. Sky subscribers can either watch the channel using the Sky Q set-top box on a TV (or on SKy Glass), or by downloading and using the Sky Go app on a computer, tablet or mobile. If you don't subscribe to Sky, you can access all Sky Atlantic's on-demand content via the NOW TV app, provided you sign up to the service.

Can I watch Sky Atlantic in full 1080p HD or 4K?

NOW TV's Entertainment Membership offers Sky Atlantic in 720p as standard on almost all devices, which is very far behind the times these days since it's not even full HD, let alone 4K as offered by Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+ and more. You can pay an extra £5 per month to get 1080p with your NOW membership via NOW Boost. The only other way to watch Sky Atlantic in full 1080p HD is by signing up for a Sky TV subscription and watching via a Sky Q set-top box or via Sky Glass.

Can I watch Sky Atlantic on Freeview or Freesat?

No. There's no option to add the premium Sky Atlantic channel to Freeview. You need one of NOW TV's Entertainment memberships or a Sky TV subscription to watch Sky Atlantic.

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