Sky might have just upgraded its broadband-powered Glass TV but it’s rivals aren’t standing still either. French telly manufacturer Thomson has just unveiled a swathe of new screens at an event in Vienna, and it’s been confirmed that some of these latest models are destined for the UK. The new televisions coming our way will all have access to Freely, which—like Sky Glass—lets users watch live and on-demand content via an internet connection. That means there’s no need for a dish or aerial to be stuck to the chimney with content streamed to the big screen instead.
Freely also offers the ability to pause live shows, see recommendations for things to watch and there’s full access to main and mini TV guide.
Freely can’t quite match the might of Sky’s huge catalogue of content, but, unlike the premium provider, it is completely free to watch.
Along with coming pre-loaded with Freely, there’s another bonus of these upcoming Thomson tellies as they will be powered by TiVo.
This platform is already included on some other screens from firms such as Panasonic and Bush, plus it has long powered older V6 set-top boxes from Virgin Media.
Now it’s being added to this latest swathe of goggleboxes and it promises to make finding things to watch a whole lot easier.
Along with offering a visually rich user experience, TiVo holds a vast amount of metadata, which helps it track down content via simple keywords. All users have to do is speak into the remote to narrow down the on-screen results. It even lets users add more search terms to reduce the number of things appearing on the screen.
For example, a user can say, “films with Tom Cruise”, but then add phrases such as “from the 90s” and “only comedies” and TiVo will do the rest.
“We make it easy for people to find, watch and enjoy what they love, on their terms,” TiVo explained.
“We serve up the best movies, shows, sports and videos from across live TV, on demand, streaming services and countless apps. With TiVo, there’s less searching, more watching in one integrated experience from any screen.”
The TiVo operating system even lets you dig into the settings and turn off certain streaming platforms. That means if you don’t subscribe to Disney+, for example, you won’t see content recommendations from the app appear on the display.
Unlike Google TV and Amazon’s Fire OS, TiVo is also proud to boast that it is totally independent, so it doesn’t push its users to specific apps or content.
There’s no exact launch date for the new Thomson tellies, but they are expected to arrive in the UK in the autumn with sizes from 24 to 64-inches available.
If these screens weren’t enough to worry Sky, TiVo has also hinted that it could also bring a Freely-powered set-top box to the UK in the future.
Right now, those wanting to access this service need a compatible TV to tune in, but it’s hoped that a new streaming box would bring Freely to older screens as well. Some manufacturers such as LG and Samsung also haven’t adopted Freely yet so a box would also fix that issue as well.
This update would be a direct rival for Sky Stream, which also turns old TVS into fully smart content hubs.
We don’t have full details just yet, but watch this space.