Sky Glass release: Why you must check your broadband NOW before you buy

Sky Glass has now officially gone on sale with this clever television offering a completely new way to tune into your favourite shows. Gone is the need for a dish to be drilled to your walls and you don’t even need a separate set-top box clogging up your living room with everything you need to watch sports, entertainment and movies tucked neatly inside this television’s colourful casing.

That means you simply unbox it, plug in a single power cable and you’re good to go with Sky even packing a Dolby Atmos compatible soundbar under the screen to help boost the audio. Just like Sky Q, there’s full access to all of Sky’s services along with integration with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+.

You can even watch telly in other rooms via a gadget called the Sky Puck which brings Sky’s service to any additional televisions you might already own.

It’s clearly a great new way to watch telly especially if you don’t want a dish installed on the outside of your home.

Express.co.uk has already seen this new TV and you can read our full first impressions of Sky Glass here

Now, before you rush to hit the order button there is one thing you need to be aware of. Without a dish, Sky has had to figure out another way of beaming content into living rooms and has opted to use the UK’s broadband network as the best solution.

This means anyone wanting to switch over to Sky Glass is going to need to make sure their internet speeds are up to scratch.

The minimum that Sky Glass needs to stream content is 10Mbps which sounds pretty reasonable. Most UK homes now have at least 70Mbps which should easily cope with streaming standard HD content to Sky Glass.

However, that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Start trying to watch in pin-sharp 4K UHD and you’ll then need around 25Mbps speeds and things get worse once you beginning adding Sky Pucks around the home as these will all eat up your bandwidth.

That means if you are watching the football in 4K and your kids are tuning into DIsney+ and Netflix in other rooms whilst someone else is trying to make a Zoom call you may find things start to stutter unless you have much faster broadband.

If you weren’t already aware, your broadband cable is a bit like a motorway – the more traffic that runs along it then the slower things can get.

This is why it’s vital to check your speeds are good enough before you start adding Sky Glass and extra Sky Pucks to your online shopping basket.

Sky says it will take customers through the recommended speeds when ordering with the company explaining on its website that, “Sky Glass works over broadband, so there’s no Sky dish needed.

“Minimum recommended broadband speeds apply and might change depending on your package. We’ll recommend these before you place your order.

“You may need faster speeds to get the best experience. Especially when watching in UHD or streaming on more devices at the same time with the Whole Home pack.”

If you have a busy home and want to watch 4K content in multiple rooms then it seems speeds of around 100Mbps or over might be needed for a seamless experience. Express.co.uk has rounded up some of the best deals for those faster speeds with full details below.