Sky through the looking glass

Sky reinvents premium pay TV with this dish-free proposition, but not without contention, reports Steve May

- Steve May

1. Sky Glass features a front-facing below-screen speaker bar plus two Dolby Atmos upfiring drivers

AV INFO

PRODUCT: Streaming 4K TV, bespoke to Sky

POSITION: Dish-free stablemate product to Sky Q

PEERS: BT TV; Virgin Media V6 set-top box

It was William S. Burroughs who pioneered the cutup technique, but David Bowie brought it to wider prominence, using the process – chopping up existing texts and rearranging them to create something new – to pen lyrics. Sky has taken much the same approach with Sky Glass, cutting up various disparate technologies and retail ideas, rearranging them to come up with something new.

Reinventing its premium pay TV proposition as an IP-only streaming and on-demand platform, Sky Glass is a walled garden for Sky services. A screen and streamer all-in-one, no set-top box or dish required.

With a designer aesthetic, coupled to some high-end bells and whistles and a seductive payment plan, Sky has created an attractive playpen to stymie subscription churn.

It’s a canny idea, but what’s it like to actually live with?

The choice is yours

Let’s recap some basics. Sky Glass is available in three screen sizes, 43in, 55in and 65in (aka Small, Medium and Large), and comes in five colour finishes: Ocean Blue, Ceramic White, Racing Green, Dusky Pink and Anthracite Black. You can make it even more individualistic by swapping the front speaker fascia with a colourful patterned alternative.