Sky Player Terms and Conditions Change

You will have to opt-out from this change by 10th December 2009, if you do not wish Sky to show tailored advertising whilst using Sky Player

I have today, received the following email from Sky, regarding the changes to the terms and conditions of Sky Player.

Dear Sky Player customer,

We are writing to let you know about some changes we are making to the Sky Player terms and conditions, including the way we provide advertising on Sky Player.

In future, the advertising you see on Sky Player may be better tailored to your interests. The new system, which is called Sky AdSmart, uses customer information to replace some general adverts with ones which we believe to be more relevant to viewers' potential preferences and interests. This will not result in you seeing additional adverts. To explain both how we will use your information with Sky AdSmart and how you can opt out of receiving tailored advertising, we have updated Sky's Privacy Policy. The question and answer section below also provides further details.

We have also made some other changes to the Sky Player Terms and Conditions, as follows:


We are expanding the number and types of devices through which you may receive the Sky Player service. Full details about these new platforms and devices, including information on compatibility, are set out on the Sky Player website, which is updated regularly. (See Ways to watch in the About Sky Player section of skyplayer.com).

We have included more detailed information about the use of cookies (see section 4.7 and Sky's Privacy Notice) and

We have clarified your rights in relation to ending your subscription (see section 8).
The updated terms are available here. Please take time to read them carefully.


If you are a Sky Player TV subscriber, your continued use of the Sky Player TV service from 10 December 2009 onwards will constitute your agreement to these new terms, including the use of your information for tailored advertising on Sky Player.

If you use any of the other services on Sky Player, these updated terms will apply to your continued use of the service(s) immediately following receipt of this notice. Please note that you can opt out of tailored advertising on Sky Player at any time by logging into My Sky on sky.com and going to Manage my profile.

For more information on how to enjoy Sky Player, please visit: skyplayer.com

Kind regards,

The Sky Player Team

There was also the following information attached:

What is Sky AdSmart?

We are now able to make some of the advertising you see on Sky Player better tailored by using additional information to help us better understand the likely interests and circumstances of our viewers.

We will take information that you have provided to us as a Sky customer (for example, your post code or TV package), in combination with data provided by other companies who have your permission to share information about you, to build up a picture of what types of products and services might be of interest to you. We then substitute standard adverts with ones we believe are more tailored to your interests.

How is this different to what is done today?

We run a range of different types of advertising across the Sky Player service. On our live TV service, we show the exact same ad breaks as those broadcast on normal TV. Whilst for our on-demand shows, we place a small number of ads at the beginning, middle and end of some programmes. We also have the ability to place advertisements within the actual Sky Player website.

In each case the adverts you see are based on an understanding of the likely interests of the particular audiences watching at the time. For example, travel agents may choose to advertise around wildlife documentaries, as they might expect this audience to be potentially interested in safaris.

Sky AdSmart will take this one step further by providing adverts based on the likely interests of individual viewers, rather than general assumptions about an entire audience. For example, if you already have Sky+HD, rather than asking you to watch a further advert for Sky+HD, we may instead provide you with an advert for a new HD programme that you might want to watch.

For the time being tailored advertising will only be available on the Sky Player on-demand services. There will be no change to advertisements carried as part of our Live TV service.

What it Means for You

We believe this change will benefit our Sky Player viewers by ensuring the advertising you receive is more relevant to you.

We always carry the same amount of advertising on Sky Player, so the amount of advertising you see will not change. However, we always aim to respect our customers' preferences and, if you decide that you do not want your information to be used for tailored advertising on Sky Player, you can opt out at any time, now or after the service starts in January 2010, by logging into My Sky on sky.com and going to Manage my profile.

We will introduce tailored advertising on Sky Player from January 2010. And the information we will use will not be shared with the advertisers who use Sky AdSmart.

Whilst I do not object to the adverts, I do object to the fact that I have to opt out, or my continued usage after 10th December, would be implied that I have indeed accepted the new T and C's. I hope Sky also write to all those customers, who use Sky Player, as a lot of these type of emails, could be potentially marked and then deleted as spam.

Also just to confirm to OPT OUT you need to:

• Login to: My Sky
• Choose: Edit My Sky Profile
• Tick the box in this paragraph. Sky online services and websites use tailored advertising. By using Sky online services and websites you are indicating your agreement to receiving tailored advertising unless you tick the box to opt out (notice the wording, unless you tick the box to opt out)
• Click save at the bottom of that page