by Thinus Ferreira
Following the unveiling of Sky's new Sky Glass TV set in the United Kingdom earlier this month, Comcast in America on Tuesday afternoon unveiled its new XClass TV set from Hisense that is 4K capable and that will enable seamless streaming for pay-TV consumers eliminating the need for a decoder or set-top box.
There's not yet been any indications that the MultiChoice Group in South Africa plans any similar integrated TV set for its DStv service in Africa that seems to lag behind international industry trends.
MultiChoice announced that it's launching a DStv Streama decoder in August 2020 but over a year later MultiChoice's DStv Streama became so-called "vapourware" with the company offering no explanation for not launching it.
Comcast announced that the XClass TV, priced at $298 (R4339) for a 43inch model and with a sticker price of $348 (R5068) for a 50-inch 4K Ultra HD model will come with a year's free subscription to NBCUniversal's Peacock Premium subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service.
The XClass TV sets will go on sale from this week in the United States.
The Hisense XClass TV sets include support for Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10 and can enable the pass-through of Dolby Atmos from compatible content sources when the TV is connected to a compatible audio device.
Similar to Sky Glass that bundles a whole collection of streaming services, the XClass TV aggregates content from Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV and America's Dish Network's Sling TV.
XClass TV users also get access to video streamers like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, WarnerMedia's HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube, Comcast's Xumo, ViacomCBS's Pluto, Fox's Tubi and Amazon's IMDb TV.
"We're thrilled to bring our award-winning entertainment experience to smart TVs nationwide and for the first-time, offer consumers inside and outside our service areas a simple way to navigate their live and on-demand content, whether streaming or cable," says Sam Schwartz, Comcast's chief business development officer, in a press release.
David Gold, president of Hisense USA, in the statement says that "As a rapidly growing brand in the Untied States, Hisense is committed not only to quality products but also to providing an array of options for our customers".
"We're excited to partner with Comcast to bring the first XClass TVs to market in the United States."
Key features of the XClass TV operating system include simple search and discovery that gets consumers quickly to the content they want to watch, regardless of what app or service it resides in with just a click or a voice command, Comcast says.
The XClass TV also has gives users the functionality to create a personalised playlist with the "My List" feature, enabling consumers to save and quickly access shows or movies from across apps and services from the home screen or through a button on the remote.
The XClass TV has a curated interface that combines automated suggestions with editorial recommendations to help consumers discover programming from across streaming apps and services.
Comcast says that the XClass TV set gives "convenient and seamless access to recently viewed apps, services, content, HDMI inputs, and over the air TV channels on the first row of the home screen to help consumers get back to their favourite entertainment faster".
The XClass TV has built-in voice technology that allows consumers to discover content quickly with a simple voice command, working in and out of apps to get content wherever the viewer is in a viewing experience.
"Comcast's global voice platform supports more than 40 million commands daily in 5 different languages across North America and Europe," the company says.
