With the announcement of Sky Glass, I feel many have forgotten that Sky TV On-Demand has been around for a while as Now TV. Many have forgotten that Sky has been making TV available on demand for years.
This renewed focus by Sky is great for consumers who want to take advantage of the amazing array of choices and value that on-demand TV provides. However, it is also great for independent cable and satellite operators who must now compete with Sky in both the direct-to-home (DTH) and the on-demand markets. Let’s face it.
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Why Move To Just On-Demand
It’s quite a bold move for Sky TV to move to a service that is just on-demand. Moving away from the ugly satellite dishes on the house or flat. It does offer two advantages that immediately come to my mind.
Number 1 is that they can now service places where a dish could not be installed or prooved difficult to install. Anyone with an internet connection will be able to sign up, pay and get Sky TV On-Demand.
Number 2 is it will also highlight their own internet broadband provider service. Most of us have broadband these days, but for those that don’t, it’s a 2 for 1 sale.
As a result, more and more people will be tempted to go with Sky as their internet service provider instead of their incumbent ISP which is usually one of the big British Telecom/NBN (National Broadband Network).
There are also some disadvantages to moving to on-demand only. The first is that the programming is not as deep as if you were to have both DTH and on-demand. This means that if you want access to all the sporting events, you’ll still need to pay for the Sports Extra package.
What Is Sky Glass?
Just what is Sky Glass? In brief, it is the Sky TV On-Demand service built into a TV that comes with a bundle of channels and services like Sky News, Sky Cinema, Sky Store and Sky Sports.
Sky Glass is the TV that has sky streaming built into it. It’s not, at least at the moment of writing this article, available as an app that you can install into another smart TV device. That’s not to say this won’t happen in the future.
On the whole, I think it is a good idea as it will allow you to watch Sky TV without having to install one of the old fashioned and ugly satellite dishes on the side or top of your home. As it is a streaming service you probably don’t even really need a standard TV aerial.
What About Now TV Boxes?
The good thing about a Now TV box or some other device, that you can install the Now TV app on (Such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, etc), is that you can install it on any TV that has an HDMI connection. This allows you to add Sky TV Streaming along with other streaming channels to any TV.
These will allow you to watch Sky TV on-demand in your bedroom or living room, rather than having to watch it on your sofa or on your computer. It is also much easier to set up than a separate Sky TV box. It also has the added benefit of allowing you to watch Sky TV from anywhere. You don’t need to be within the Sky TV network, so if you’re travelling, you can still watch Sky TV. You can even use it at the beach!
Why Would I Want Sky Glass?
Although here we are talking specifically Sly Glass, but for a moment let’s look more at the bigger picture of streaming TV over live TV – live being single through a receiver.
The largest positive point is the lack of need for the receiver. No longer do we need to have a metal dish attached to our homes to receive Sky channels – could it even be called satellite TV after this? Now even homes can receive these channels wherever they have an Internet connection.
To illustrate this, let’s take a closer look at a normal Sky TV box. A normal Sky TV box, which is a bit old-fashioned and bulky, has two things: A dish that is mounted on the outside of the house, or on top of a chimney, or on the side of a garage, or on the back of a shed etc. A receiver inside the home (The black box on the left in the picture above) Both of these are necessary to receive the signal from the satellite so that the channels can be streamed into the home. Now, with the advent of live streaming, we don’t need to have the dish on the outside of the house or the receiver in the home. You simply need the Sky Glass TV (or a streaming TV device that has the Now TV app).
Add to this the fact that most streaming channels have live and also catch-up TV. So, you no longer have to record that favourite live TV program, you can stream it on catch-up.
So, Should I Just Get The Now TV App?
If streaming using a TV streaming box with the Now TV, why not do this over getting the new Sky Glass TV? Personally, that’s the route I take as I can use it on any TV. However, firstly check out the number of channels you can stream with Sky Glass and on Now TV.
You may find that the channels you want to watch are not on Now TV but are on Sky Glass. If that is the case then Sky Glass may be for you.
Should I Buy Sky Glass Or Use Now TV?
Sky TV offers a streaming service through its NowTV app, which can be streamed via a Roku, Apple TV, or any other streaming device. The service is very competitively priced and offers a huge range of content, including many Sky Sports channels and movies. The NowTV bundle is available at a competitive price and is a great alternative to Sky TV for those who want to cut the cord and save money.
So, should we go out and spend far more money on Sky Glass? The answer is it depends on what channels you want to stream and if you’re in the market for a new TV. If you want to buy a new TV then going for Sky Glass may be worth it. If you want to stream channels that are not on Now TV and those channels are important, then it may be worth buying it. If you have a good current TV and want to stream only channels available on Now TV then this option is better.
In addition to that, there are so many other streaming services that are now available and we’ll look at some of those in the next section. Which Streaming Services Do You Use? As well as streaming services, you can also get TV via your mobile phone, tablet, PC, or laptop.