Death of the satellite dish?
Sky unveils new £650 ‘streaming TV’ – which does away with need for a receiver outside homes
A TV set which allows families to watch Sky’s full television streaming service without a satellite dish for the first time was unveiled yesterday.
The Sky Glass smart television appears to sound the death knell for the TV giant’s famous satellite dish which has been a feature of services since the company launched in 1989.
The new TV is linked to wifi and removes the need for a dish and settop box. It requires only a broadband connection and has a single power cable. The broadcaster said the system, which will launch on Monday October 18, would ‘transform the role of the TV in the home’.
Sky claimed the Glass would be the world’s first carbon-neutral television. The TV, which has Sky’s services and other apps built in, comes in three sizes - 43in, 55in and 65in – and five colours. The cost of the smallest TV is £649 while it is £849 for the 55in version and £1,049 for the 65in. All three need a subscription to a Sky package as well.
Sky is also offering payment plans similar to mobile phones. It will cost £13 a month for the 43in TV, and users will need to pay for a TV package to go with it starting at £26 a month for Sky Ultimate, which includes Netflix. This means customers will have to pay a minimum £39 per month, with a higher cost for bigger TVs or more expensive packages.
Sky Glass has a 4K Ultra HD display and built-in Dolby Atmos surround sound and can be voice-activated.
It is aimed at removing the clutter of different boxes, speakers and cables in a room. Sky has been linked for decades with the millions of dishes it has installed outside family homes. In recent years it has been trying to adapt to the changing media landscape caused by new technology and increased competition from US streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.
This has seen it investing more in programming, but also allowing customers to access rival platforms through the Sky service.
Sky Glass customers will be able access BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, the
ITV Hub, All 4 and others through its system. They will also be able to create a personal playlist of favourite shows. Although Sky’s Now streaming service currently allows customers to watch some of the company’s original content without using a satellite dish, it does not offer the full service.
Sky already offers TV via broadband in Italy and Germany through its Sky Q settop box. It stressed it would continue to offer Sky Q and satellite services to UK customers. Sky group chief executive Dana Strong said: ‘Sky Glass is the streaming TV with Sky inside, providing the total integration of hardware, software and content.
‘Built on over 30 years of understanding what our customers want, this is a TV that only Sky could make. We believe this is the smartest TV available and that customers will love it.’
Sky said Glass would have a full TV guide and allow access to traditional terrestrial channels such as BBC1 and ITV. The company also revealed a new 4K smart camera that links to Glass is due to be introduced in 2022.
This will allow video-calling through the TV and features for gaming and home exercise. Sky has not yet named the hardware partner which makes Glass. It has also not explained how it will stream content without buffering.
Glass is due to be launched in Sky’s other European markets, including Italy, Germany and Ireland, from next year. Sky is the UK’s biggest pay-TV firm with nearly 13million customers in 2019.
It currently has around 23million across Europe.
‘Minimum cost is £39 a month’