Sky’s announced a green change to the “auto standby” setting used by their set-top boxes.
Currently, Sky’s boxes will go into standby overnight between 11pm and 3:30am if there has been inactivity for 2 hours.
In the coming weeks, Sky will be rolling out a new version of software to Sky+ boxes that changes this behaviour. Soon, Sky+ boxes will go into standby after 4 hours of inactivity regardless of the time of day. There is an option to disable this feature if needed, via the Services button.
Sky reports that this change will save their customers a potential £12m from their combined electricity bills.