Sky unveils Glass – a no-dish, no-box TV from £39/month

Sky has today launched its first television with built-in streaming services, meaning customers won’t need a satellite dish or box to watch its content.

It has been billed as a way to ‘buy your TV like you buy your mobile phone’, with the Ultra HD television available in five colours and three sizes.

Called Sky Glass, it will be available from £39/month when it is launched in the UK on October 18.

It signals a dramatic shift in the television world as the British broadcaster moves away from the satellite dishes that have defined its service for decades.

The 4K Ultra HD Quantum Dot television will instead work over a Wi-Fi connection and is the ‘only TV in the world with Sky inside’, Sky boss Dana Strong said at the launch event in London.

Dish-free: Sky has today launched its first television with built-in streaming services, meaning customers won’t need a satellite dish or box to watch its content. The Sky Glass TV is pictured

HOW MUCH DOES SKY GLASS COST AND WHAT TV SIZES AND COLOURS ARE THERE?

Sky Glass will be available from £39 per month when it is launched in the UK on October 18.

The 4K Ultra HD Quantum Dot television will work over a Wi-Fi connection and is the ‘only TV in the world with Sky inside’.

What sizes are available?

Small 43″
Medium 55″
Large 65″

What colours are available?

Ocean blue
Ceramic white
Racing green
Dusky pink
Anthracite black

How much does it cost?

43″ – £649 upfront or £13 per month

55″ – £849 upfront or £17 per month

65″ – £1,049 upfront or £21 per month

And what do I need on top?

Sky Ultimate TV (required) – £26 per month

Sky Cinema – £11 per month

Sky Sports – £25 per month

Sky Stream puck – £50 upfront and £10 a month to stream on TVs in other rooms

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Customers can also talk to the smart TV in a similar way to home speaker devices Alexa and Google Assistant, by saying ‘Hello Sky’ and asking for a particular show or film they want to watch.

That is similar to the way the voice remote control works with Sky Q, the company’s current flagship subscription service, but Sky Glass also allows you to turn on the TV, control the volume and switch to connected devices such as an Xbox console.

It will have a new home page that includes content from Sky, BBC iPlayer, All4, Netflix, Disney+, ITV Hub, Spotify and Pelton.

Customers will also be able to create a personal Playlist of their favourite shows and films using a new button on the remote, while a live ‘restart’ function means viewers can rewind or watch content from the start if they miss it.

The aim of the product is to simplify how people watch TV by integrating hardware, software and content into one device, rather than customers having to purchase Sky TV with a box and dish on top of their existing television.

Sky Glass comes in a choice of three sizes — small 43″, medium 55″ and large 65″ — and five colours: ocean blue, ceramic white, racing green, dusky pink and anthracite black.

A mounting bracket integrated into the TV or a matching colour stand will also be provided, while the product boasts 360° Dolby Atmos sound with its built-in speakers and sub-woofer.

‘Sky Glass is the streaming TV with Sky inside, providing the total integration of hardware, software and content,’ said Strong, Sky’s chief executive.

‘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.’

Sky said its new product is also the world’s first TV to be certified as carbon neutral, with a single power cable and built-in low power features to make it more energy efficient.

Customers can also talk to the smart TV in a similar way to home speaker devices Alexa and Google Assistant, by saying ‘Hello Sky’ and asking for a show or film that they want to watch

Customers will be able to create a personal Playlist of their favourite shows and films using a new button on the remote, while a live ‘restart’ function lets you watch content from the start

It can be purchased either up front for £649 or via interest-free payments from £13 a month.

However, customers will still have to pay for the Sky Ultimate TV package to get the basic content and Netflix to watch, which costs £26 a month, bringing the cheapest package to £39 a month.

By comparison, Sky Q costs £26 a month for 18 months – with up to £49 in setup fees.

Sky Cinema and Sky Sports would cost an extra £11 a month and £25 a month, respectively, while customers wanting to increase the size of their TV from the 43″ one included in the £39 deal would have to pay £4 more a month for the 55″ (or £849 upfront) and £8 more monthly for the 65″ TV (£1,049 upfront).

Sky Stream pucks, which cost £50 each upfront, can be purchased as an add-on to Sky Glass to allow content to be streamed in other rooms — similar to the current multiscreen offering — but it also requires a £10 monthly subscription on top.

Options: Sky Glass comes in five colours: ocean blue (pictured), ceramic white, racing green, dusky pink, or anthracite black. A matching colour stand will also be provided

The 4K Ultra HD Quantum Dot television will work over a Wi-Fi connection and is the ‘only TV in the world with Sky inside’, Sky boss Dana Strong (pictured) said at the launch event in London

The minimum connection needed to stream HD content through a Sky Glass TV is 10Mbps, Sky has said, and 25Mbps for 4K. That is the same as the minimums for Netflix.

Sky also said it will be the first TV manufacturer in the world to have a swap program, allowing customers to trade in Sky Glass TVs for newer models as they become available.

The company has not yet said how this will work but it is likely to be offered to those who pay via a monthly subscription rather than buying the TV upfront.

Further down the line is a 4K smart camera, due for launch in 2022, that will attach to Sky Glass TVs and support apps such as Zoom. Sky claims it will ‘transform how we chat, play games, workout, and share entertainment at home.’

The broadcaster launched in 1989 as Britain’s first satellite TV service and came with four channels: Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport.

It first revealed plans for a ‘no satellite dish’ version of its subscription service in 2017 and hoped to launch it the following year, although that was later delayed until now.