Sky has launched a teaser for a new service that’s being unveiled next month. The yet-to-be named service promises to ‘set TV free’, although it’s unclear what that means or how that will happen.
Sources close to the matter tell Recombu that the new service will ‘sit alongside Sky+ and Now TV’ and is billed as ‘an addition to the Sky product line-up’.
This suggests that some kind of IP-based on-demand service will let subscribers access Sky content on multiple devices, similar to how they currently can via Sky Go and Sky Multiscreen.
Related: Sky Sports 4K Ultra HD demo – First impressionsThis could signify a move to a Sat IP-based service or it could take a leaf out of the EE TV and Freeview Play book, by letting customers in the home access multiple streams of live or recorded TV shows on phones and tablets over WiFi.
‘Set TV Free’ implies freedom from having to be tied to one set-top box in the living room, so we’d be surprised if there wasn’t some mobile element or an evolution of Sky Go.
While sources have told us that the new service will offer ‘a whole new experience,’ we’ve been unable to get hold of any specifics which might shed light on the nature of Sky’s new service.
It could be that the new service matches up with the rumoured ‘SkyQ’ platform, which supposedly brings 4K Ultra HD content and an Apple TV-style UI to the table.
Sky has been testing out 4K Ultra HD TV transmissions and is leading the charge in defining broadcast standards for the industry. While those haven’t yet been firmed up, there’s nothing, in theory, to stop Sky from launching a service that delivers 4K streaming channels like pay TV rival BT Sport has done.
Ultiamtely, we don’t know. All we’ve got to go on at the minute is this enigmatic teaser that’s been posted to YouTube. Whatever Sky’s planning, it’s obviously something big. More on this as and when we get it…
Leave a Reply