A software upgrade sent out to Sky+ boxes to support the new Sky Anytime service has left some punters bereft of all their recorded TV programmes.

Sky Anytime is a service which automatically records TV shows and films overnight onto an unused - and unavailable to customers - part of the Sky+ DVR hard drive. The shows are selected by Sky, and customers can't delete them, or even watch them if they don't have a subscription to the appropriate channel.

The programmes are automatically deleted, watched or not, when Sky decides it wants the space for something else, though customers can copy them into their own part of the hard drive.

The idea is to introduce viewers to shows they might have not heard about, but would enjoy - though how many people are still undecided about Lost is open to question. But in some cases the upgrade needs to reset the Sky+ box - deleting all the programmes the customer has already recorded.

Sky claimed that only a "very small minority" of customers have lost their recordings, and it promised to investigate complaints before the next download, scheduled for a couple of weeks' time.

But if you've got a Sky+ box without Sky Anytime you might want to spend the weekend catching up on your viewing before it slips away from you in the night.

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