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Dana Strong, CEO of Sky Group at the launch of Sky Glass, the new streaming TV with Sky inside.
Joe Maher | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
LONDON – Comcast’s European pay-TV offering, Sky, has launched a smart TV called Sky Glass.
The product will allow customers to stream Sky TV and other content over the Internet without the need for the Sky Q set-top box or satellite dish, Sky said.
It’s the biggest hardware announcement Sky, which competes with Netflix and Amazon on content, has made since it was acquired by Philadelphia-based Comcast in 2018 for $ 39 billion.
The TV, announced at an event in London on Thursday, will be available in the UK from October 18 before launching in other European markets next year.
“Sky Glass is streaming TV with Sky inside, offering full integration of hardware, software and content,” said Dana Strong, CEO of Sky Group, in a statement.
The TV, which comes after the launch of Apple TV and the Amazon Fire dongle, comes in five colors and three sizes: Small 43in, Medium 55in, and Large 65in.
The smaller option will cost £ 13 ($ 17.70) per month in the UK, while the medium option will cost an additional £ 4 per month and the larger one will be an additional £ 8. They can also be purchased directly for £ 649, £ 849 and £ 1,049, respectively.
One caveat is that customers also have to pay an additional £ 26 per month at least to access Sky content via TV.
Compatibility
Other services such as Netflix, Disney +, BBC iPlayer, Peloton and Spotify are also accessible via television, Sky said.
Sky Glass, which can be activated by saying “Hello Sky,” has a 4K Ultra HD display that displays more than a billion colors, the company said.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a Sky News interview on Thursday that it was an “offensive” move, as opposed to a defensive move.
Sky Glass is “all of the technology that Comcast and Sky have been working on for over a decade,” Roberts said.
He added, “All the wires are gone. All the boxes are gone. You can talk to him. He tells you what you want to see. He shows it to you right away. You can switch from music to exercise to television news. “
Sky Glass Camera
A new 4K smart camera will launch for Sky Glass in 2022 that supports chat, games and workouts, Sky said.
Paolo Pescatore, technology, media and telecommunications analyst at PP Foresight, told CNBC that “the end of the set-top box is finally here.”
He said the prospect of getting the premium Sky experience without a satellite dish will make the service “much stickier” for households.
It also opens up new revenue opportunities with higher margins for Sky, Pescatore said, adding that there was an opportunity for Sky to introduce “double and triple play bundles” that include fast and gigabit fiber connectivity. .
“It is difficult for rivals to compete head-on given Sky’s dominance in television and its position as an aggregator of key streaming services,” said Pescatore.
Some consumers have been discouraged from buying TVs with too much software on board in recent years, as the hardware can struggle to keep up with software updates that require more processing power.
Sky said Sky Glass was built in such a way that it could be syndicated and deployed by other telecommunications and subscription TV operators.
Foxtel Group, an Australian subscription television company, will be the first syndication partner, he added.
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal and Sky.
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