Sky has updated Entertainment OS with some great new features
Sky has updated its Entertainment OS that runs on both Sky Glass and Sky Stream with a number of new features. Some of the new features are designed to help you access the content you want to watch quicker, while others enhance the experience, especially when it comes to sports and gaming.
The updates to Entertainment OS are rolling out in a couple of stages so if you have Sky Glass or Sky Stream at home, or you’re considering getting it, there are some updates you will get access to right away, while others will appear a little later this year – more specifically in May.
We saw the new features in action at Sky’s HQ in Osterley, UK and we’ve rounded up what you need to know and what you can expect if you are a Sky Glass or Sky Stream user.
The OS updates to try out on Sky Glass and Sky Stream now
There are a couple of pretty substantial updates to try now on Sky Glass and Sky Stream, the first of which is personalised movie and TV genre rails. The personalised movie rail is available now, and the TV show one is incoming.
In a bid to help with the decision of what to watch next – we’ve all been there – the personalised movie and TV rails are designed to recommend more than 30 different genres to help you discover more content you might love. They will show you recommended options based on what you have already watched and what you have added to your Playlist.
If you’ve been binging ‘Mary & George’ for example, you’ll see biographical and historical dramas appear in your personalised rails, but you’ll also get thrown in a wild card every now and then too, because, well, you never know what you might like if you venture out a little.
Alongside the personalised rails that sit above ‘Continue Watching’ rail and the rest of the content rails, you will also be able to fast forward and rewind using your voice. It’s a feature you can already do on Sky Q, but you will now be able to say “Hello Sky, rewind” on Sky Glass or into your remote for Sky Stream and the show your watching will start backtracking. You can specify the speed you want to rewind or fast forward at too.
Elsewhere, you can use your voice to find your favourite artists and songs on Amazon Music and ROXi, and you can personalise Playlistts with a range of character avatars. For now, the avatars are based on children’s characters like Peppa Pig, but more avatars including sports personalities and actors and actresses will be added this year.
Last but not least on the updates you can experience now, Cast and Crew have been added to a show’s page. Click on an actor or actress and you will then be greeted with everything else related to that particular person so if you really love Tom Cruise, you can see everything available to watch that relates to him quickly and easily.
Updates coming to Sky Glass and Sky Stream from May
What’s coming down the line is perhaps more exciting however, particularly for sports fans. Sky Sports Main Event will be available in Low Latency from May, reducing the time between the action on the pitch and it being shown on your Sky Glass or Sky Stream. It means you might not hear the goal from cheer at the pub down the road before you see it on your screen at home.
Sky Sports Main Event will be the first channel to benefit from the latency reduction of 22 seconds, but it will also come to other Sky Sports channels later in 2024.
Speaking of latency, an Auto Game Mode is also launching that uses Auto Low Latency (ALLM) to offer a more responsive gaming experience when you just plug your games console in.
Other updates that will arrive with Entertainment OS 1.3 include the ability to add actors to your Playlist, and football fans will be able to add teams too to see all matches in one place.
Additionally, you’ll be able to use your voice to add shows and movies to Playlist and Rotten Tomatoes ratings will appear on Show Pages – save you having to Google a rating separately before you decide to give it a go. Show Pages have also been updated to include more information at the top, as well as the Cast and Crew rail that we mentioned which you can tap on to discover more about a particular actor or actress and what they are involved with.
Last but certainly not least, all Ultra HD on demand content will offer subtitles by the end of summer and Audio Description will also be available on video on demand content too.
Your Sky Glass or Sky Stream should update automatically. To check you are running Entertainment OS 1.2, head to settings at the bottom of the interface and scroll down to ‘System management’. You’ll see Entertainment OS at the top. It should say 1.2 if you’re running the latest.
