Sky TV faces another new UK rival this year that will offer all content for free
If you want to watch premium telly without the need for a dish or aerial drilled into the chimney, you won’t find a much better option than Sky Glass. This internet-connected screen has recently been refreshed with it now offering owners improved visuals, punchy sound from its in-built speakers and a super-simple set-up that takes minutes to install.
Sky Glass really is a tough TV to beat, but it’s facing stiff competition from a relatively new rival called Freely. This platform comes included on many new smart TVs and, just like Sky’s offering, brings live and on-demand content to living rooms via a broadband connection. Users can also pause content, get recommendations and see what’s coming up via the telly guide.
The biggest difference between Sky and Freely is the cost. As the name suggests, Freely is completely free!
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Manufacturers packing this tech into their TVs already include Hisense, Panasonic and Bush and now there’s even more screens on their way to homes.
During a recent launch event in Vienna, French firm Thomson confirmed it is releasing some new tellies in the UK and all will come with full Freely access.
Not only that, but they will also be powered by TiVo. This much-loved system has been running other TVs and some Virgin set-top boxes for a while and there are some big advantages of using it.
The TiVo team believes it has one of the best systems for finding things to watch and customising results.
“We make it easy for people to find, watch and enjoy what they love, on their terms,” TiVo explained.
“We serve up the best movies, shows, sports and videos from across live TV, on demand, streaming services and countless apps. With TiVo, there’s less searching, more watching in one integrated experience from any screen.”
One bonus of TiVo is that it has a vast amount of film and entertainment metadata.
When attempting to find things to view, all users have to do is speak into their remote to narrow down the on-screen results. It even lets users add more search terms one by one in a bid to reduce the number of things appearing on the screen.
For example, a user can say, “show me films with Tom Hanks” to be shown movies with the Hollywood star. But then you can add phrases such as “from the 80s” and “show only comedies”. TiVo will do then do rest.
Something else homes might like is being able to turn off certain streaming platforms from search. That means movies and boxsets won’t show up if you don’t pay for things such as Disney+ or Netflix.
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Parents might be especially pleased by this as they won’t then be hassled to sign up for things they don’t pay for.
There’s no exact launch date for the new Thomson tellies, but they are expected to arrive in the UK in the autumn with sizes from 24 to 64-inches available.
If these screens weren’t enough to concern Sky, TiVo has also hinted that it could bring a Freely-powered set-top box to the UK in the future as well.
For those not aware, those wanting to access Freely currently needs a compatible TV to tune in, but it’s hoped that a new streaming box would bring it to older screens as well. Some manufacturers such as LG and Samsung also haven’t adopted Freely yet so an external device would also fix that issue as well.
This update would be a direct rival for Sky Stream, which also turns old TVs into fully smart content hubs.
We don’t have full details just yet, but watch this space.