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Dana Robust, Sky Group CEO on the launch of Sky Glass, the brand new streaming TV with Sky inside.
Joe Maher | Getty Pictures Leisure | Getty Pictures
LONDON — Comcast’s European pay-TV providing Sky has launched a wise tv known as Sky Glass.
The product will permit prospects to stream Sky TV and different content material over the web with out the necessity for the Sky Q set-top field or a satellite tv for pc dish, Sky stated.
It is the most important {hardware} announcement that Sky, which competes with Netflix and Amazon on content material, has made because it was acquired by Philadelphia-based Comcast in 2018 for $39 billion.
The TV, introduced at an occasion in London Thursday, shall be accessible within the U.Okay. from Oct. 18 earlier than launching in different European markets subsequent yr.
“Sky Glass is the streaming TV with Sky inside, offering the overall integration of {hardware}, software program and content material,” stated Dana Robust, group chief govt of Sky, in an announcement.
The TV, which comes after the launch of Apple TV and the Amazon Hearth dongle, is available in 5 colours and three sizes: small 43″, medium 55″ and huge 65″.
The smallest choice shall be priced from £13 ($17.7) per thirty days within the U.Okay., whereas the medium choice shall be a further £4 a month and the most important shall be an additional £8. They will also be purchased outright for £649, £849 and £1,049 respectively.
One caveat is that prospects should additionally pay a further £26 a month not less than for entry to Sky’s content material via the tv.
Compatibility
Different providers equivalent to Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Peloton and Spotify will also be accessed via the TV, Sky stated.
Sky Glass, which may be turned on by saying “Howdy Sky,” has a 4K Extremely HD display screen that exhibits over 1 billion colours, Sky stated.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts stated in an interview with Sky Information that it is an “offensive” transfer, versus a defensive one.
Sky Glass is “all of the expertise that Comcast and Sky have been engaged on for over a decade,” Roberts stated.
He added: “All of the wires are gone. All of the bins are gone. You may discuss to it. It tells you what you need to see. It exhibits it to you straight away. You may swap from music to train to tv to information.”
Sky Glass digital camera
A brand new 4K good digital camera shall be launched for Sky Glass in 2022 that helps chat, gaming and exercises, Sky stated.
Paolo Pescatore, a expertise, media and telecoms analyst at PP Foresight, advised CNBC that the “finish of the TV set-top-box is lastly right here.”
He stated the prospect of getting the premium Sky expertise with out a satellite tv for pc dish will make the service “far stickier” for households.
It additionally opens new income alternatives with greater margins for Sky, Pescatore stated, including that there is a possibility for Sky to introduce “twin and triple play bundles” that embrace quick fiber and gigabit connectivity.
“It is laborious for rivals to compete head on given Sky’s dominance in TV and place as an aggregator of key streaming providers,” Pescatore stated.
Some customers have been delay shopping for TVs with an excessive amount of software program constructed into them in recent times because the {hardware} can wrestle to maintain up with software program updates that demand extra processing energy.
Sky stated Sky Glass has been constructed in order that it may be syndicated and deployed by different telco and subscription TV operators.
The Foxtel Group, an Australian subscription TV agency, would be the first syndication companion, it added.
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC’s guardian NBCUniversal and Sky.