Report: Sky Glass TV sales ‘underwhelming’
May 2, 2023
By Chris Forrester
A report in the Sunday Times newspaper, quoting sources within Comcast-owned Sky, suggests that while Sky Glass has been recognised as being a “good innovation”, sales are below expectations and not enough to see Sky’s UK broadcasts migrate from satellite to a ‘dishless’ streamed Internet and 5G.
According to the report, the manufacturing costs behind Sky Glass are higher than anticipated because of supply chain issues. Sales are said to be “underwhelming”, perhaps not helped by negative ‘word of mouth’ complaints.
The Sky Glass TV sets were launched with much fanfare in 2021 and were designed to suit broadband signals. Consumers were encouraged to dump their satellite connections – and the previously hyped SkyQ set-top boxes – and use Sky Glass for reception of Sky’s broadcasts.
However, there were widespread critics of the concept, ranging from buffering of broadband signals, poor video and audio/lip-sync problems. Some of those complaints have reportedly been remedied in the latest iteration of Sky Glass.
There are also some grumbles that Sky Glass and its ‘Playlist’ catch-up service is not as versatile as its Sky Q satellite-based product. Sports fans using Sky Glass, for example, cannot view a missed Match of the Day Saturday night football highlights show until the following Monday because of rights problems.
Sky’s churn in 2022 was a worrying 9 per cent of customers.