Sky’s lengthy journey to maneuver past satellite tv for pc TV is lastly over, as the corporate launches its model new internet-only TV platform. Sky Glass is the corporate’s first own-brand Smart TV, one which ditches the home-mounted satellite tv for pc dish and set-top field in favor of pulling all of its content material from the web. The firm’s pitch is to centralize not simply its personal content material contained in the one field, however to behave as a common platform for each streaming TV app presently out there in the marketplace. Not to say that placing all of it inside a single piece of {hardware} reduces the muddle that builds up beneath the household TV.

On the {hardware} entrance, Sky Glass is available in three sizes, 43-, 55- and 65-inch shows, all of which have 4K Quantum Dot LED screens with 10-bit HDR+ and Dolby Vision. It ships in 5 colours: Blue, White, Green, Pink or Black, with matching distant controls, speaker fascias and stands. On the audio entrance, Sky says that you simply gained’t want a soundbar with this package, because the {hardware} comes with six-speaker Dolby Atmos sound, in addition to a subwoofer, built-in.

(The firm added that, consequently, Sky Glass is as much as 50 % extra power environment friendly than your present set-up because you’ll not be powering a discrete set-top-box and soundbar.)

But Sky’s worth proposition isn’t simply that it’s promoting a flowery TV with some streaming bits inside, however an entire new strategy to finish the infinite scroll. With Sky Q, the corporate already positioned itself as a curation layer between you and the content material you need, however this takes it a giant step ahead. It’s designed to combination the entire catalogs from the entire streaming apps out there and allow you to decide and select what you need from one centralized location. That means you’ll be able to watch episodes of the identical TV sequence, so as, even when they’re hosted on completely different streaming platforms.

Sky Glass can also be voice-activated, with the wake phrase ‘Hello Sky,” and you should be able to access all of your favorite shoes, live TV and play listed content with it. But if you’d desire, you should use the brand new distant, which is a simplified model of the contact distant already out there for Sky Q, albeit with backlit buttons for higher night-time operation.

At the identical time, Sky additionally introduced a 4K webcam which it’s planning to launch in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later which can sit on prime of the TV and supply Portal-esque video calls. This system additionally affords motion-tracking and skeleton monitoring for each movement gaming and customised exercises, and it even appears like a Kinect. When this {hardware} is on the market, you’ll additionally be capable to have watching events for dwell TV even once you’re not in the identical location.

Of course, provided that Sky is owned by Comcast and the corporate is rumored to be working by itself TV platform, you’ll be able to assume for your self {that a} rebranded model of Sky Glass is coming to the US. Protocol stories that Comcast has been engaged on a product, dubbed the XClass TV, for the US market. In addition, Sky says that Glass is not going to simply be out there within the UK and Europe, but in addition in Australia and different markets throughout the following yr or so.

Price-wise, Sky Glass will value £649, £849 or £1,049 relying on for those who go for the 43-, 55- or 65-inch model. But the corporate says that it expects extra individuals to purchase it on a month-to-month subscription contract, a lot because it does with telephones through Sky Mobile, for a minimal contract time period. In that occasion, the {hardware} will set you again £13, £17, or £21 monthly, relying on which dimension you go for.