Sky Floats Novelties to Differentiate Sky Glass TVs in TV Space

Sky booked the new Magazine London event venue on Thursday in the city’s Greenwich neighborhood and brought in a live audience of journalists and media analysts to introduce a line of smart TVs called Sky Glass, billed by Sky Group CEO Dana Strong as the first smart sets to use Wi-Fi connectivity for Sky pay-TV service reception with “no dish, no box, no fuss.” The venue ran temperature scans on all who attended, but required no vaccinations or masks, and few in the crowd wore them.

All three Sky Glass 4K quantum-dot sets have Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Rendering Dolby Atmos functionality through multiple embedded speakers and a subwoofer obviates the need for a separate soundbar, said Sky. The sets will debut Oct. 18 in the U.K. at 649 pounds ($884) for the 43-inch, 849 pounds ($1,156) for the 55-inch and 1,049 pounds ($1,428) for the 55-inch. Sky Glass will be available in Sky’s other global markets next year.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts took the stage in-person to say that when he viewed the demonstration of an early Sky Glass prototype, “I knew we had something special.” Comcast became Sky’s majority owner three years ago (see 1810090028). The “big idea” behind the Sky Glass development project “was to reimagine television and Sky’s role in the living room,” said Roberts. The Comcast Global Technology Platform “is the foundation of all our products -- hardware, voice search, discovery and the ever-changing world of apps,” including the Xfinity set-top in the U.S., said Roberts. Sky Glass is the platform’s “latest innovation,” he said.

When Sky delivers Sky Glass TVs free of charge to the homes of paying customers, “we unbox it and place it in position for you,” said Strong. “All you have to do is plug it in and pair it with your Wi-Fi, and you’ll be ready to go in less than 10 minutes.” Sky Glass is “the first platform to fully integrate content from local public service broadcasters and global streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+,” she said.

Sky was the first media company in the U.K. to commit to “net-zero carbon” by 2030, and Sky Glass is the world’s first TV to land CarbonNeutral certification from National Capital Partners, a consortium of green groups, she said. With the Sky Glass offering, “there’s just one TV, one power cable and one remote,” said Stephen van Rooyen, Sky executive vice president-chief executive officer, U.K. and Europe. “Because it combines multiple products through one power supply, it uses up to 50% less energy than a TV connected to a soundbar and a set-top box.”

Van Rooyen touted various novelties about the Sky Glass offering to make the case for differentiating it from other TV choices. Sky Glass will be available at “astonishingly lower and competitive pricing,” and can also be purchased on a monthly contract basis, he said. “These days, no one thinks twice about getting a mobile phone on a monthly contract,” he said. “So we wondered, why not offer the same convenience and make Sky Glass available in exactly the same way?” The 43-inch set’s monthly contract will cost 13 pounds ($17.72). The 55- and 65-inch models will cost 17 pounds ($23.17) and 21 pounds ($28.63) a month, respectively.

Since technology “now moves so fast,” said van Rooyen, “we never want customers to feel like they’re being left behind.” Sky thinks it will be the world’s first TV manufacturer to offer an “exchange program,” he said. “Just like your mobile phone, you can sign up to regularly swap your Sky Glass for the latest model.”

Sky partnered on the Sky Glass project with London’s Map Project Office, “one of the world’s leading design agencies,” said van Rooyen. The partnership “guided many of our decisions along the way,” he said. “There’s no logo visible on the front. That’s true of most furniture, but certainly not electronics.”