Sky’s streaming TV, ‘Sky Glass’, was recently updated with three additional news channels, at no extra cost to subscribers. Among them is CNN, which was available on Sky Q, but not on Sky Glass – until now.
CNN is of particular interest to Sky’s viewers in the UK, since it’s no longer available on Freesat, Virgin Media and BT, having been removed from those platforms last year.
In addition to more news channels, there were a few changes to BT Sport’s channels on Sky (both on Sky Q and Sky Glass) – see below for the full list of changes.
All this is in addition to more channels that were added to Sky Glass last week, along with some new features, as part of a free software update.
Sky Glass is a 4K TV set with QLED HDR display and a built-in Dolby Atmos soundbar with six speakers.
Unlike Sky’s other TV services in the UK, Sky Glass doesn’t use a satellite dish – instead, it relies on broadband, and streams all the content to the TV, much like other streaming devices like the Amazon Fire TV and Roku – or streaming services like Sky’s own NOW (see our Sky Glass VS Now comparison).
In my review of Sky Glass, I was impressed with its global search and its overall promise for the future. Picture and sound quality are mid-range but decent, but there’s still a lot Sky needs to do, with some missing features and a few ongoing issues.
At the moment, customers who buy Sky Glass directly from Sky can get the Sky Sports addon for half price, £12.50/month for up to 18 months (and £25 a month thereafter – but you can cancel at any point, since Sky Glass has rolling 30-day contracts).
CNN Added To Sky Glass
CNN was founded by Ted Turner in 1980, as a 24/7 news network, and is still one of the most popular news networks in the US and globally.
Around the world, CNN operates via CNN International, with various international editions available.
In the UK, CNN used to be available for free on Freesat, the free-to-air service that requires a satellite dish and a Freesat receiver/recorder.
In 2021, however, CNN was removed from Freesat, and from most of the pay-TV platforms – except Sky (though there are still other ways to watch CNN for free – see our guide).
However, only Sky Q customers were able to watch CNN, as the channel was never added to Sky Glass – until now. It’s part of several channels that were missing from Sky Glass at launch (some of which still are).
Starting this week, CNN is now available in HD on Sky Glass Channel 506.
That’s the same channel number as on Sky Q, and it’s available at no extra cost, if you have the basic Sky Ultimate package (which currently costs £26/month – check Sky offers here).
Talk TV and GB News Added To Sky Glass
Two more news channels that were added to Sky Glass this past week are the right-leaning Talk TV and GB News.
GB News launched a year ago, chaired and fronted at the time by former BBC presenter Andrew Neil. Neil has since left the channel, which has gone through a revamp, with its main presenter now being former politician Nigel Farage.
GB News is available on Sky Glass Channel 509. It’s also available on Freeview, Freesat and the pay-TV platforms.
Talk TV launched just a few months ago, and is also a right-leaning news channel, with its main presenter being Piers Morgan, the former presenter of Good Morning Britain on ITV.
Talk TV is now available on Sky Glass Channel 508.
It’s also available on Freeview (Channel 237 – SD Only), Freesat (Channel 217, HD), Sky TV (Channel 526, HD) and Virgin Media (Channel 627, HD).
BT Sport Changes On Sky
BT Sport is available on Sky Glass (and Sky Q) for customers who sign up for it through Sky.
This week, BT Sport Ultimate, the 4K version of BT Sport, was supposed to be added to Sky via the Red Button platform – but that was postponed at the last moment.
However, there were a few other changes to BT Sport on Sky this week – with the names of the channels and Red Button services being changed:
- BT Sport // ESPN SD/HD (Sky Q Channel 876/423 – Glass 415) renames to BT Sport 4 HD
- BT Sport Extra 1 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 5
- BT Sport Extra 2 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 6
- BT Sport Extra 3 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 7
- BT Sport Extra 4 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 8
- BT Sport Extra 5 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 9
- BT Sport Extra 6 (Red button service – Sky Q + Glass) renames to BT Sport 10
We’re still waiting to hear when BT Sport Ultimate will be added to Sky Q and Sky Glass.
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