Sky has announced a host of key enhancements to its Entertainment OS – the software that underpins the Sky TV experience – with a massive boost for sports fans coming soon.
When streaming Sky Sports Main Event via Sky Stream and Sky Glass, the TV provider has managed to shave a full 20 seconds off the latency in broadcast time.
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While satellite viewers generally get the Premier League action just a few seconds after it happens in the real world, the complexity of capturing, encoding and streaming video has meant the feed is often well behind.
For fans watching on streamed platforms that can be a real pain, as friends can text you before goals go in on your screen, or social media gives the game away.
The chances of that happening will be diminished thanks to Sky lowering the latency. In a press release, the company doesn’t say how this has been achieved, but says it’ll be faster to the punch than other streaming services. It’s rolling out to other Sky Sports channels soon.
“Sky Sports Main Event viewers will soon be able to watch the channel in Low Latency, reducing the time between the action on the pitch and watching on your Sky Glass or Stream,” the press release says. “Latency has been reduced by over 20 seconds, which means you can now watch your favourite sports faster than many other streaming services.
“Sky Sports Main Event viewers will be able to watch sports in Low Latency over the coming months, before being rolled out to other Sky Sports channels this year.”
I’m really interested by how Sky has achieved this, so I’ve contacted the company for more information.
Elsewhere, across the 1.2 (out now) and 1.3 updates (coming soon), Sky is adding Rotten Tomatoes ratings to content pages, adding a personalised recommendations rail, and a new cast and crew rail for TV series or movies that allows you to delve deeper into an actor’s library.
The “Hello Sky, rewind” feature is also coming from Sky Q to Sky Glass/Stream.
