British Sky Broadcasting Limited is shutting down subsidiary BE’s hosting and email services at the end of July, according to an announcement posted Friday to the BE website. Sky acquired BE Broadband along with parent O2 Broadband in May 2013, in a deal which made Sky the UK’s second largest ISP.

The announcement details the service withdrawal, and urges customers to act before the July 31 shutdown date to select a new host, register a new domain, and copy their files and contact lists.

The FAQ portion of the website addresses the possibility of customers finding the same product features when migrating to Sky, and says that while broadband customers may eventually find the same or comparable services, hosting and web services for business are not offered by Sky.

Customers could be forgiven for thinking that Sky does offer hosting, however, as similarly named hosts exist in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

The statement gives the same reason for each service’s closure, saying: “With only a few people using the service now and increased costs in running it we’ve decided to withdraw it.”

BE was originally slated to offer Sky Fibre Broadband Pro fast FTTC service, according to recombu.

Sky has posted large gains on the LSE over the past year, but was down slightly (0.52 percent) just before the close of Friday trading.
Kepler Reviewed by Kepler on . British Sky Broadcasting to Shut Down Web Hosting Subsidiary BE Broadband http://i.imgur.com/11Y2gSB.jpg British Sky Broadcasting Limited is shutting down subsidiary BE’s hosting and email services at the end of July, according to an announcement posted Friday to the BE website. Sky acquired BE Broadband along with parent O2 Broadband in May 2013, in a deal which made Sky the UK’s second largest ISP. The announcement details the service withdrawal, and urges customers to act before the July 31 shutdown date to select a new host, register a new domain, and Rating: 5