Sky to replace satellite dishes and boxes with smart TV sets
Sky is launching a new smart television called Sky Glass which aims to declutter homes by binning set-top boxes and satellite dishes while giving customers access to their favourite films and shows.
The streaming TV integrates all of the hardware and software otherwise spread out across living rooms, including sound-bars, into a device with just a single wire and one plug.
It comes as the company moves to solve what it sees as a consumer frustration with content as well as hardware being spread out across numerous gadgets and digital platforms.
Sky Glass will aggregate content from digital platforms
Available in five colours and three sizes (43″, 55″, and 65″), Sky Glass is the first major product launch from the company since it was acquired by Comcast for £29.7bn in 2018.
It has a 4K UltraHD Quantum Dot display, using nano-crystals that offer an upgrade on the range of colours (over a billion shades according to Sky) and brightness available on the screen.
In keeping with the move to declutter, Sky Glass also does away with the need for a nest of electronics cables for their audio, with six integrated speakers and a sub-woofer.
The launch comes as companies like Sky figure out how to manage the competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Disney.
To this end the company expects to invest in more Sky Originals such as Gangs of London and Chernobyl, and is building a new 32-acre TV and film studio at Elstree in Hertfordshire.
But it’s also making it easier for people who want the content available on competitors’ platforms to access that programming though its own devices.
Sky Glass is available in five colours
This began with Sky Q, a box that aggregated terrestrial and subscription broadcast content alongside digital streaming services.
That same capability is now inside Sky Glass, allowing consumers to access content from Sky, BBC iPlayer, Amazon, Netflix, Disney+, ITV Hub, All4, Spotify, Peloton and others using a single remote or its voice-activated interface.
Speaking at an event to mark the launch of the device, 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.”
The company also plans to launch a 4k smart camera next year that will pair with Sky Glass and allow people to watch films together, play games, workout and join in calls.
Sky has committed to being Europe’s first net-zero carbon entertainment company by 2030, and Sky Glass is the world’s first television to be certified as carbon neutral.
It also has energy-saving features including auto-switch-off and has completely recyclable packaging, according to the company.
Consumers will be able to either buy it in one go or to spread the cost with interest-free monthly payments in the same way they do when purchasing a mobile phone.
Sky Glass is the new smart TV being launched to replace set-top boxes and satellite dishes
Sky Glass will be available from £13 per month for the 43″ screen, but consumers will also need a Sky TV subscription, taking the cost to £39 per month.
The 55″ screen is available for £17 a month, and the 65″ screen for £21 a month on top of the Sky TV subscription, and all three will begin retailing from 18 October.
The full price is £649 (43″), £849 (55″) and £1049 (65″).
The company says that all of the Sky Glass models come with a full two-year warranty and a free delivery service that includes unboxing and packaging removal.
It was separately announced that Australian pay TV firm Foxtel would be the new system’s first syndication partner.
Asked whether this was an attempt by Sky to muscle in on the TV manufacturing market Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chief executive and chairman, told Ian King Live: “We’re going to be able to licence our technology all over the world.
“We are pleased to have Foxtel joining on this launch date.
“It’s a journey we’re on but it’s more than just the actual physical television.
“In fact that’s what’s so great about the product is, the physical television is maybe the smartest in the world, but it’s what’s behind it that makes that claim so true and that we can do with others over time as well.”
Sky is the parent company of Sky News. Sky News operates under an independent editorial policy as part of undertakings detailed in our Editorial Guidelines. These are publicly available here.
The past 12 months have been the gift that’s kept on giving when it comes to newly-coined words and phrases entering our lexicon.
But how well do you know the terminology that’s been all over socials in 2024? Can you sort your brats from your clean girls?
Test your knowledge with our quiz below and let us know how you do!
Entertainment
Dayle Haddon: Former Sports Illustrated model dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning
Dayle Haddon – the actor, activist and former Sports Illustrated model – has died from what authorities believe was carbon monoxide poisoning.
Authorities found the 76-year-old dead in a second-floor bedroom on Friday morning after emergency dispatchers were notified about a person unconscious at the house in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania.
A 76-year-old man, later identified as Walter J Blucas, of Erie, is in a critical condition.
Responders detected a high level of carbon monoxide in the property.
Investigators believe the leak was caused by “a faulty flue and exhaust pipe on a gas heating system”.
As a model, Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1973 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
She also appeared in about two dozen films from the 1970s to 1990s, including 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, starring John Cusack.
Haddon (left) with Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde (right) during a meeting of the Gender Equality Advisory Council. Pic: AP
Haddon left modelling after giving birth to her daughter, Ryan, in the mid-1970s, but then had to re-enter the workforce after her husband’s 1991 death.
This time, she found the modelling industry far less friendly: “They said to me, ‘At 38, you’re not viable’,” Haddon told The New York Times in 2003.
Read more on Sky News:
Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, dies at 73
Working for an advertising agency, she began reaching out to cosmetic companies, telling them there was a growing market to sell beauty products to aging baby boomers.
She eventually landed a contract with Clairol, followed by Estee Lauder and then L’Oreal, for which she promoted the company’s anti-aging products for more than a decade.
She also hosted beauty segments for CBS’s The Early Show.
In 2008, Haddon founded WomenOne, an organisation aimed at advancing educational opportunities for girls and women in marginalised communities, including in Rwanda, Haiti and Jordan.
Read more on Sky News:
Andrew Garfield on baking cookies and his mum’s perfume
Disabled musicians demand greater inclusivity
Haddon’s daughter, Ryan, said in a social media post that her mother was “everyone’s greatest champion. An inspiration to many”.
“A pure heart. A rich inner life. Touching so many lives. A life well lived. Rest in Light, Mom,” she said.
Actress Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.
She died peacefully at her home in California, surrounded by her loved ones on Friday, according to a post shared on her official Instagram account.
The message, posted with a sunset photo of Hussey in her youth, paid tribute to “a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her”.
It went on: “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals”.
Calling her a “truly special soul”, her family said while her “immense loss” was grieved, they would also “celebrate Olivia’s enduring impact on our lives and the industry”.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1951 to an Argentinian father and English mother, Hussey returned to London aged seven with her mother and studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.
Spotted by Italian director Zeffirelli in a stage show of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Hussey’s performance as Juliet aged just 15 made her a star and won her a Golden Globe.
Sixteen-year-old actor Leonard Whiting played her Romeo, with the pair going on to sue Paramount Pictures in 2022 for sexual abuse due to the Oscar-nominated movie’s nude scene.
(L-R) Franco Zeffirelli, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in 1968. Pic: AP/Eustache Cardenas
The case was dismissed by a judge the following year.
Hussey would work with Zeffirelli again, playing the Virgin Mary in the 1977 TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth.
Appearances in horrors including Black Christmas and Psycho prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning established Hussey as a scream queen over the years.
Other notable appearances included Hercule Poirot movie Death On The Nile and Mother Teresa biography Madre Teresa.
Read more:
Andrew Garfield on baking cookies and his mum’s perfume
Disabled musicians demand greater inclusivity
Hussey was reunited with Whiting in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet.
Her daughter, actress India Eisley, played her on-screen daughter in the movie.
It was Hussey’s final screen role, according to IMDB.
Hussey leaves behind three children, Alex, Max, and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, and grandson, Greyson.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway