Some customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband, primarily those in West Yorkshire (England), appear to be suffering from an unusual problem with their internet connectivity. The issue is disrupting video playback on YouTube and hampering access and downloads from Google Play (App store) on Android devices, as well as some other services.
The sporadic problem (i.e. it doesn’t impact everyone in West Yorkshire, but there are a lot of complaints) appears to have started over a week ago (around 11-12th January 2025) and is currently still ongoing this week (credits to Julian and Mac for the alert). Customers affected by it find that they’re struggling to get a smooth video stream from YouTube (buffering starts and then playback doesn’t resume) and have been unable to update/install apps via the Google Play store. But most other services appear to work as normal.
The issue, which sounds more like it could be a routing/peering fault or some sort of problem with one of Sky’s Content Delivery Networks (CDN), also doesn’t appear to be related to the router(s) customers are using – reports have come in both from those on third-party devices, and those using Sky’s own models. In addition, disabling the Sky Broadband “Shield” (network-level parental filter) service has no impact.
Sky have already tried sending various engineers out to some of their customers and replacing routers, albeit to no avail. A sizeable number of complaints about the problem can now be found strewn across social media and Sky’s own Community Forum (examples here, here, here, here and here); we’ve included a few examples of that below.
Sample Complaint 1
I’m having the same problems on my connection also. I have broadband shield turned off, and have restarted the router. Only buffers on select videos on YouTube, but downloading apps or updating them doesn’t work over wifi. It is very strange as everything else works over wifi connection, i.e Netflix, prime video, etc. Youtube also has connection problems on iPad, but downloads app updates fine
Sample Complaint 2
I have the exact same thing. YouTube app not loading videos or shorts. Everything else works fine.
I can go on mobile data, start the video and then it plays.
Sample Complaint 3
Sky broadband have a really weird localised issue for over a week. It sounds really unlikely but google play store apps won’t install or update while using sky broadband in large parts of West Yorkshire. It affects youtube and skygo apps too.
Sky are sending engineers out and have been blaming phones equipment etc. Engineers have been sent as well as new routers. It’s been more than a week and sky seem to be clueless in how to fix it.
Sadly, Sky did not respond to ISPreview’s attempts to query this yesterday. But one of their Community Managers, Kev, has today confirmed that Sky is aware and working on the issue “at a high level“. The support agent later added: “I totally understand everyone’s frustration and apologise for this. I suspect my colleagues initially hadn’t realised that it was a wider issue; they will only speak to one customer with this problem, or none at all. The contact centre handles thousands of calls daily and advisors support more than one product.”
The good news is that customers can work around the problem by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client to avoid pushing traffic over Sky’s side of the internet connection, which enables YouTube and Google Play to work again. But not everybody will feel comfortable using a VPN and hopefully Sky don’t continue to drag their feet over this for too much longer, particularly as unresolved issues can sometimes spread.