Despite mixed reviews about Sky’s newest device in the two months since its launch, Sky bosses say they are happy with sales of Sky Glass.
According to Sky News, bosses at parent company Comcast are “happy and surprised” at sales of the device. However, the company declined to post sales figures.
In an interview with Sky’s Ian King, Fraser Sterling, Chief Product Officer at Sky said Sky Glass should be viewed as an entertainment platform, not just a TV. He added “It’s not just about TV and movies…. It’s got fitness and music, and we’ve got games in there as well, and that’ll expand more and more over time.”
The search functionality brings together all of the content available on all of the apps on Sky Glass, making it easier for viewers to find which streaming service a programme or film is on. But Sky Glass users are required to have multiple subscriptions to access all of the available apps on the service.
Sterling said “How we really thing about Sky Glass – and why it is genuinely different, globally a different thing, there’s no other product like it right now – is because we look at it as a massive catalogue. There’s a catalogue that sits there and has information on live, on-demand, things that you can record, stuff that’s in other apps and it’s all there in a massive catalogue. If I search for Bruce Willis movies,… you will see all the Bruce Willis movies. But that’s from everywhere, from Amazon, from (Sky) Cinema, from Netflix, from Disney, all of them in one place. And that is because it’s in the catalogue.”
Early adopters complained of various bugs and faults. Sky has since issued software updates to sort image quality and performance. Following complaints about lack of bluetooth support for headphones, Sky are now looking at options to add that functionality.
Unlike Sky’s existing satellite service, Sky Glass is delivered through a broadband internet connection. Users don’t necessarily have to be Sky broadband customers. The all-in-one TV means users no longer need a separate Sky receiver.
New apps, new issues
Sky Glass has recently added two new apps: streaming service Apple TV+ and radio and podcast service Global Player. A number of users have reported issues trying to access the new services. Complaints include sign-in problems on Apple TV+ and issues playing streams on the Global Player.
More about Sky Glass…
Sky Glass launch & specifications
What’s on and what’s not on Sky Glass