Sky Sports are already testing the next generation of television pictures, variously known as Ultra High Definition TV or by the rather more geeky moniker of ‘4k’.

The system under test creates a picture four times better than HD and on the last day of August, Sky put together a world first: a football ground to studio to TV set ‘end-to-end’ UHDTV test transmission.

In collaboration with Sony, the West Ham v Stoke game was shot on four UHDTV cameras and a special HD camera, and shown to a select audience at its London HQ.

The Sky trial is the first to use satellites that are also available for commercial purposes to send images around the country – and while there are no specific plans to launch a commercial service at a specific date, Japanese broadcasters have already announced that they will transmit the World Cup final live from Brazil in ultra-high definition. Sky won’t want to be behind.

Should Sky start to use Ultra HD, then you will require a new Sky box, as Ultra HD will not work on your currently SkyHD digibox.