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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Now (streaming service)

television service of Sky

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ7065448 ↗
Source-derived summary

Now (formerly Now TV and often stylised as NOW) is a subscription over-the-top streaming television service launched in the United Kingdom in 2012. It is operated by Sky Group in Europe, and Xfinity in the US; both owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. In German-speaking Europe, it is owned by the Europe media conglomerate RTL Group.

Now offers both live streaming and video-on-demand without a contract. The service offers "passes" for various types of content, for a monthly fee on a pay-as-you-go basis. Differing passes offer films, sports and entertainment from Sky such as material from Sky Atlantic and Sky Cinema, and from British and American licensed third-parties such as Fox. The service is available to consumers through retail Roku-based Now TV digital media players (in both set-top box and HDMI dongle form factors) as well as via an app on computers, various mobile devices, some game consoles and set-top boxes. It is separate from and not viewable through the Sky Go Internet service, or via Sky's digital satellite television service Sky Q.

History and coverage

Now TV

Now TV was unveiled by Sky UK in March 2012, and designed for people who have no existing pay TV subscription. Its official launch was on 17 July 2012, initially providing films, putting it in competition with Lovefilm and Netflix.

The Now TV service was later extended to other territories covered by the Sky Group.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Now (streaming service)” as television service of Sky. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2012-07-17. The account is most persuasive where streaming, service and television can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as television service of Sky. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7065448. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2012.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Now (streaming service)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Now (streaming service) primary sources, Now (streaming service) archive and streaming research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Now (streaming service)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Now (streaming service)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.