Sky Glass, which was announced back in October, represents a dramatic shake-up for the satellite telly company. Not only is it the first television custom-designed by the teams inside Sky, but it’s also the first product to ditch the unsightly satellite dish from the outside of your home – with every live channels, boxset, movie and football match beamed via your home Wi-Fi network instead. Sky Glass also arrives with a sleek new menu design, a new way to manage your recordings that ensures that you’ll never run out of space, and a hands-free voice commands. There’s no shortage of new features and it seems that viewers are desperate to try it for themselves. When Sky first launched orders for its 4K TV, it prioritised its longest-standing customers – those classed as Diamond and Platinum VIPs, who have held a continuous contract with the company for eight years or over. That seems to have finished, but Sky is now warning customers that “Sky Glass is in high demand right now”.
As such, it’s still not possible to place an order for the new kit. Despite becoming available over a month ago, Sky still seems to be struggling with the level of demand for its first all-in-one television. “The magic is coming,” the company promises on its website, “register today and we’ll send out your invite to purchase as soon as we can”.
However, there’s no indication of when Sky Glass will become available to you, how many people are already in the queue. With Christmas fast approaching, it’s a bit of a shame that you won’t be able to ensure that you’ll have the new kit, which boasts a QLED display and built-in soundbar for movie nights, ready for the onslaught of festive movies coming to terrestrial channels and Sky Cinema in the coming weeks.
Sky Glass starts from £13 a month for the 43-inch television, which is a ridiculously reasonable monthly fee for an all-in-one television. While you don’t have to subscribe to Sky’s telly bundles (you can just buy Sky Glass outright, like you would with any other television in your local electronics store) it makes sense that you’d want to watch the latest must-see US dramas on Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports and blockbusters on Sky Cinema if you’re considering purchasing a Sky-designed television for your home. Just like with Sky Q, the standard bundle of channels, including Sky Atlantic, Sky Max, Sky Comedy, Sky History, Comedy Central, MTV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TLC and dozens more, comes with a Netflix subscription and costs £26 a month. If you subscribe to that bundle, you’ll be looking at £39 a month, which seems less ridiculously cheap.
Don’t forget – you won’t have a satellite signal beaming all of those channels, sports fixtures and movies to your screen, so you’ll need to make sure you have a speedy internet connection to watch your favourite shows (and even your recordings, since nothing is stored on a hard-drive within the hardware itself!). The minimum internet speed required for Sky Glass is 10Mbps, which is pretty reasonable. After all, the average home broadband speed in the UK, as measured earlier this year, is 70Mbps, so most people should easily be able to cope with streaming standard live channels via Sky Glass.
However, those who want to watch Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and shows in Ultra HD to take full advantage of the 4K resolution built into Sky Glass will need at least 25Mbps. And if you want to be able to watch in another room, you’ll need an extra 5Mbps for every Sky Stream Puck added to your account. So, if you want to bring Sky to your kitchen and a couple of bedrooms, you’ll need another 15Mbps.
That brings the total to 40Mbps. While that still seems comfortably below the 70Mbps average – remember that is the total bandwidth available at home. If you’re watching Sky Glass downstairs in Ultra HD, while other family members are watching in their bedrooms, someone is streaming from Spotify, smartphones are downloading a new software update, and children are playing video games online… that 70Mbps speed will quickly be gobbled up. If that happens, you could find the quality of the show you’re watching dips – like when BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub is buffering – or the broadcast stops entirely.
There’s no way of telling when Sky Glass will be available in a steady supply, so you can jump into the Sky Store and order at any time – just like Sky Q. But if you’re interested, it’s probably worth putting your name on the list. After all, there’s no obligation to buy when Sky finally gets in touch about your new flatscreen. And in the meantime, you can read our in-depth Sky Glass review.