Every now and then we rail against the stuck-in-the-mud ways of traditional broadcasters as they struggle to adapt to the digital world, but every now and then they do something right, too.

Online streaming is more than just on the rise, it is quickly becoming the new normal. It no longer simply means a group of university students huddled around a laptop, streaming the Premier League from a less-than-reputable site: it now means millions of people watching on their tablets and phones, on their desktops, or on their sofas in front of smart TVs (or stupid TVs with Chromecasts). And yes, it means students huddled around laptops, too.

That’s not to say that Sky, BT and others don’t offer those customers the chance to watch on apps or online. They do. But the problem lies more in their understanding of the online world, and that how people consume their entertainment (because this is bigger than just sport).

These days, a growing number of people want to use second screens when they sit down to watch anything at all. That might be because they want to access social media to see what other people are saying, or might be because they want to watch more than one thing at once – something that is especially true when it comes to keeping abreast of multiple sporting events happening at once.

And this from Sky is a nod to that trend, allowing viewers to watch two simultaneous sporting events on the same screen:

Hate missing an overtake or that last minute equaliser? Catch game-changing sporting moments with new split screen viewing on #SkyQ pic.twitter.com/n7r7xJlIEt

— Sky (@SkyUK) October 5, 2016

It may only be a nod to the trend rather than actually providing customers with exactly what they want, but Sky’s new split screen initiative – available only to Sky’s next-gen TV platform Sky Q – does at least rectify one problem with TV, the ability to keep an eye on only one sporting event at once. Though you might argue that you can really only properly watch one at a time anyway.

What it doesn’t do, though, is allow customers to pick and choose which sports or events they pay for, it only allows for getting more of your money’s worth from what you already pay for. One of the problems with subscription TV services is that you get access to hundreds of channels you don’t want, and that seems to justify a large fee. In reality, customers might only watch a handful of those channels on a regular basis.

This new initiative does seem to point to an acknowledgement of people’s changing habits, but it might need more than that if the current rights holders to some of the biggest sporting events are to look like good value for money to subscribers.