Award-winning box Sky Q gets smarter with new features to be rolled out in the coming weeks

Award-winning box Sky Q gets smarter with new features to be rolled out in the coming weeks

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 8-Jul-2020 — /EuropaWire/ — Europe’s leading media and entertainment company Sky, part of Comcast group, has announced it will roll out new smart features to its award-winning box Sky Q, the biggest change since its launch. The Sky Q box will get a stunning new expanded view UI, simple new show and sports centres, intuitive smart buttons and improved voice discovery will make it easier to browse, find and watch the stuff you love, all in one place.

It’s HDR content is also growing, with Disney+ available in HDR for the first time.

Rolling out over the next few weeks, these changes will bring together TV and apps more seamlessly than ever before, meaning even more entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, YouTube, BBC, Spotify and others will be found side-by-side on the big screen in your home.

Here’s what’s new for you:

• A fresh, expanded view UI makes room for more TV inspiration. It says goodbye to the static menu bar, which is replaced with a dynamic collapsible menu, letting you see a third more of the stuff you love. This means more TV, film, online video, podcast, music and games recommendations on your home screen, and less time searching for what you want.
• Each show will have a show centre, a go-to destination for every available episode. All seasons, episodes, recordings, broadcast schedules and on-demand links are together in one place for the first time. Plus, there’s a new smart button coming that gets you to the episode you want quickly. So, if you’re halfway through an episode of Gangs of London, it’ll say ‘continue ep. 3’, or if you’ve just finished, it’ll suggest you start the next episode. The smart button will switch between Continue, Delete, Watch from the Start, or Play the next episode – all based on what you watched last.
• Sports fans will soon be able to find all the latest games, news, documentaries, fixtures, podcasts and tables in new sports centres. Saying ‘football’ into the voice remote will take you to a page that brings together live and on demand football content from all channels and apps including; Sky Sports, Sky Sports App, BT Sport, terrestrial channels, YouTube and Spotify. You will see everything that’s on at that moment, with no need to scroll, search or dip in an out of apps. It’s not just football, you can do this for a range of sports including; F1, Cricket, Golf, Boxing, Tennis and more, with leagues and sporting events coming soon.
• Voice discovery makes your next entertainment choice even easier. Sky Q’s advanced voice search has got more intuitive, and will let you ask for themes and genres, alongside actors. Saying “thrillers with Nicole Kidman” will soon bring up relevant suggestions of what to watch. You’ll soon be able to ask for entertainment themes too, such as ‘new shows’, ‘Halloween’ or ‘Christmas’.
• Following the launch of HDR on Sky Q earlier this year, Disney+ will also be available in HDR. And there’s still more to come over the next few months, including more Sky Nature shows, Sky originals and Sky Cinema movies in time for Christmas. HDR live sport will be available in 2021.

Fraser Stirling, Group Chief Product Officer, Sky, said: “We’ve redesigned Sky Q to make it even smarter, simpler and better at aggregating all of the TV and app content you love into one place. A new-look UI, improved voice search and more intuitive navigation make everything easier to find without having to search around, so you can get to the next episode of Succession, a brilliant football podcast, or choose from the most popular British dramas easily.

“And we’re not stopping there, the tech team behind Sky Q and Sky Go are working hard on loads of new updates that we’ll be rolling out every few months, so you can expect your Sky TV experience to keep getting better.”

To find out more about Sky Q and start your adventure from £29/month on an 18 month contract, head to: sky.com/tv.

Notes to Editors

A Disney+ subscription is required to access Disney+
A compatible HDR TV and Sky Q box is required to view HDR content

About Sky

With 24 million customers across seven countries, Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 32,000 employees help connect our customers to the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own local, original content.

Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, we plan to double our investment in original content by 2024. We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Our technology allows customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and as we connect millions of families to content they love, we believe it is our responsibility to do it safely. That’s why we offer services like Sky Broadband Buddy and the Sky Kids app. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. We recently announced a series of commitments to help tackle racial injustice and improve diversity and inclusion. To ensure the commitments are delivered, Sky will invest £10million per year across its markets for each of the next three years. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 – two decades before we have to – and we’re an inclusive employer recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity.

SOURCE: Sky