Sky Protect: Media giant includes £250 worth of free smart home tech with new home insurance product

Sky might be best known for its dominance of the UK Premium TV sector, but it has higher ambitions than that and, as of today, is entering another sector. Its latest product, Sky Protect, has nothing to do with satellite dishes or Sports TV coverage; it’s all about home insurance.

But Sky says its home insurance product is different, not only does it give existing Sky customers a discount on the product, but the media giant is also giving away £250 worth of smart home tech to anyone who takes out one of the new policies.

The smart tech bundle provides customers with a battery-powered video doorbell, an indoor security camera, one movement sensor, a pair of door/window sensors and three smart leak sensors to give early warning of burst pipes or dodgy plumbing. Sky says leaks are responsible for most home insurance claims and it hopes providing the latter will enable its customers to catch leaks early, thus reducing the severity of claims.

It doesn’t look to be the most advanced kit, however, and the doorbell in particular is missing some critical features. For starters, it’s battery powered only. You can’t wire it up to mains power, meaning you’ll have to charge it up every few months (Sky says the battery life is up to four months, but that depends on how often its motion sensor is triggered). It doesn’t have facial recognition, either, although Sky does say the doorbell will recognise if a person has triggered its motion sensors.

And although it does come with a doorbell chime included in the bundle, this has to be wired directly into your Wi-Fi router as it doesn’t support wireless connection to your home Wi-Fi network. There’s also no outdoor camera included in the bundle and no option to add one at launch, so if you need a camera to cover the rear of your house, you’re out of luck.

Still, there are reasons you might want to consider having your smart home set up delivered by Sky. The first is that everything is tied together in one app, so you don’t need multiple apps on your phone. The app is where you set up the home insurance policy and make claims.

The app is also where you get access to Sky’s list of trusted tradesmen (provided by Axa) who can be called out 24 hours a day, seven days a week if the worst does happen.

The second reason is that Sky doesn’t charge extra for cloud storage for your doorbell and security camera clips; you get 30 days of video storage included with the insurance policy. With most other hardware-only providers, such as Ring and Google Nest, you have to pay a monthly subscription for this and most even lock advanced features into their subscription model as well.

The policy, which is underwritten by Zurich Insurance Group, covers buildings and contents insurance, as you’d expect it to, and also includes cyber cover and legal expenses. You’ll have to sign up for an initial 24-month contract to begin with and, unlike other insurance policies, Sky doesn’t charge a premium to pay in instalments.

You can sign up for Sky Protect today from the Sky website.

• Please note that the information on this page does not constitute financial advice. You should always do your own research to ensure any financial product, including home insurance, is right for your specific needs and circumstances.