Comcast's Sky Jumping Into Television Business With Sky Glass

phalse phace shares a report from The Verge: British Satellite broadcaster Sky is moving away from the satellite dishes that have defined its TV service for decades. Sky Glass is launching today, an ambitious effort to sell television sets that stream Sky TV content over Wi-Fi directly to consumers. There's no external box, no satellite dish, and no need for a soundbar. Although announced for the UK today, Sky has global aspirations for Glass TV "built on technology borne of the collaboration as part of the Comcast Corporation." As such, we might be looking at the platform underpinning Comcast's rumored XClass TVs for the US. Sky Glass TVs will be available in three sizes: 43-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch. Each 4K TV will stream Sky's TV channels, and integrates in voice control (Hello Sky) and 21 apps to access additional content like Netflix, Spotify, or Disney Plus.

Sky hasn't named the TV manufacturer it partnered with yet, but the full specifications include a UHD Quantum Dot display, support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG, three HDMI 2.1 ports, and a single USB-C port. The rather chubby TV fits six speakers for up to 215W of Dolby Atmos surround sound: 3 outward firing speakers, 2 upward, and 1 central subwoofer. There will also be five color options: white, pink, green, blue, and black. The price of a Sky Glass TV is designed to be baked into a monthly subscription to Sky's TV service, known as Sky Ultimate TV, but you can also pay for the TV upfront if you want to lower the monthly costs. Sky Ultimate TV includes access to Netflix and some basic Sky channels, but Sky Sports and Sky Cinema are separate add-ons. What you pay will depend on the size of TV and whether you want to spread payments. The report goes on to note Sky's collaboration with Microsoft to watch TV together with others. "Sky demonstrated a software experience that allows you to watch TV channels with others, and see each other's reactions to sport in real time," reports The Verge.

Furthermore, Sky claims it'll be the first TV manufacturer in the world to allow customers to "swap old Sky Glass TVs for newer models when they're available," the report adds.

TV Tax?

[sconeu]

Will they have to pay the TV tax?

Re:

[Richard_at_work]

Yes, because the license fee is for receiving broadcast television in any format - aerial, satellite, streaming.

As an aside, Skys had a non-satellite based service for some time now - Sky Q. Its a set top box which receives Sky programming and channels over the internet. It just sounds like here they are bundling it into a TV and offering some perks like free hardware upgrades.

Given that Sky has historically either not charged for the entry level hardware, or charged very little, and been fairly generous

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The licence fee only has to be paid for watching live broadcasts, so depending on how the service works you might not need to pay it.

Sky is one of the old linear TV services, and it sounds like they intend to stream linear channels. If you can just pick what you want like Netflix then there would be no need to pay the TV licence fee.

Re:

[TractorBarry]

My initial thoughts were that this would be a device where users who only watch Sky, and don't watch the BBC/C4 etc., would be able to buy one of these, ditch the TV, and then not pay the licence fee - they're not watching live broadcasts.

However my second thought is that the government will now attempt to charge an "internet licence fee" as you *might* use such a device to "watch live TV via the internet".

The whole steaming pile of crap that is the licence fee needs to go the way of https://en.wikipedia.or [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Problem with getting rid of the licence fee is that some other way to fund the BBC needs to be found. Or I suppose the BBC could go fully commercial, but that would be a huge loss to our democracy.

Re:

[CrazyBusError]

Sky Q isn't non-satellite. Never has been. It was merely the next-generation Sky HD box, with a bunch more tuners in it and 4K capability.

Sky Glass and the accompanying 'Puck' boxes are the first actual Sky branded units that are IP-only. 'Now TV' was the previous effort that was more akin to Roku and Apple TV.

Re:

[Aighearach]

Will they have to pay the TV tax?

You don't realize it, but you've accidentally proven that the license fee isn't a tax.

Yuck

[BcNexus]

Sounds like leasing a tv. I prefer owning my things, thank you very much.

Re: Yuck

[RegistrationIsDumb83]

Yup. Seems a bit predatory. Not surprising from a company that sued "No Man's Sky" because they think they own the word Sky. These guys suck.

Re: Yuck

[dpille]

I'd be glad to rent their access to various overseas content. Saying you prefer to own that is really saying you prefer not to see it at all.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

In the UK it's normal to rent the set top box needed to receive satellite or cable TV. It comes with the subscription, and you can't supply your own equipment.

Part of the reason is DRM. Every now and then they send you a new box, occasionally to offer a new service but most often to upgrade the DRM. The old boxes get sold off to other countries.

Glass?

[Forty Two Tenfold]

Diamondillium it is.

It's a typo

[groobly]

They mean "spy" glass.

Comcast For Affiliate Purpose

[erikinsob]

I say Slashdot as a stunning quality appliances provider. This how you can say Problem with getting rid of the license fee is that some other way to fund the BBC needs to be found. Or I suppose the BBC could go fully commercial, but that would be a huge loss to our democracy. http://www.choicewar.com/ [choicewar.com]