Sky Glass Part 2: The Product

Read Paul and Nina's first report on Sky Glass here

TVs have long been the staid old lady of the CE world with their slow replacement cycles and unexciting design. Sky is shaking that niche with its Sky Glass TV range.

Sky is a content company, and fully understands that it is selling experiences. The TV is a gateway, not the experience itself - a fact that TV makers can forget. Sky has a strong record of exhaustive consumer research and doubtless has constructed Glass accordingly. It is positioning its TV much more like a mobile phone: a personalised product bought on a monthly subscription with built-in replacement options. The business model is a continuous relationship, not the "make box - sell box – profit" of the CE industry.

Product managers systematically undervalue convenience: Technically inferior solutions that are easy to use win against complex, but technically superior, products (think MP3 versus CD for starters). Sky Glass, with its single-wire setup, is marketed not with an alphabet soup of specs but simply three sizes, something that will surely appeal to those who are uninspired by the intricacies of eARC and AI processors.

A single wire is not only convenient but heralds the megatrend of on-demand viewing. Sky, a company built on satellite content, has created a TV with no satellite tuner. Sky Glass is the first true TV product for a streaming-first world. Vizio tried tuner-less a few years ago, and while its move failed, it was probably simply ahead of its time. Nonetheless, it is a brave step for Sky to forgo any decoding of its satellite services and burn its established business model.

People love personalising their phones; and no two living rooms are alike. Yet TV brands generally only make inoffensive, neutral products. Honourable mention goes to Samsung (whose Serif and Frame ranges offer bold formats and some colour choices) and to Philips (which has used high-quality materials - in particular polished aluminium - in its premium models). Sky Glass promises to challenge convention with the IKEA model of strong design at approachable pricing.

Sky Glass could - and arguably should - shock the TV setmakers to change:

• Firstly, to focus clearly on addressing real usage in a streaming world.
• Second, to create products with adventurous design that break from the lowest common denominator (inoffensive and unexciting).

In 2020 TV brands had a taste of higher selling prices rejuvenating their profitability. Sky has just shown a few more pieces to the puzzle to create value in television.

More insights into the TV market are available in Omdia's TV Sets Intelligence Service, TV Sets Market Tracker, and TV Sets Spotlight Service.