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Sky has set up ‘Real Time’ channels on its streaming based Sky Glass TVs and Sky Stream set top boxes so you can watch World Cup games with much less signal delay than you would normally have to put up with.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo: John Archer<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n One of the most traditionally annoying things about watching live sports over cable or satellite has been the delay such delivery systems tend to introduce to the feed compared with simpler broadcast approaches. Hearing your neighbors roar when a goal goes in or getting a ping on your phone with a score update before you\u2019ve seen the goal happen on your supposedly \u2018live\u2019 feed can\u2019t half spoil the moment. <\/p>\n British subscription broadcaster Sky has in the past been one of the biggest culprits of this feed delay problem \u2013 ironically to some extent because of the effort it puts into delivering premium experiences complete with next-gen picture and sound quality and various background features. Over the past year or two, though, it\u2019s managed to massively reduce the time its own broadcasts take to appear on its own Sky Glass TVs and Sky Stream boxes. And now, in the nick of time, Sky\u2019s also managed to reduce the time that live World Cup broadcasts from the U.K.\u2019s BBC and ITV broadcasters take to pass through Sky\u2019s distribution systems.<\/p>\n The so-called Real Time technology behind this, originally introduced for some of Sky\u2019s own live sports coverage, streamlines the production and distribution path of these specific broadcasts to a point where the pictures are delivered \u2018almost instantly\u2019, to use Sky\u2019s own words. Sky doesn\u2019t provide an exact latency time figure for its Real Time broadcasts (which are essentially live streams when they\u2019re appearing on Sky\u2019s Glass TVs or Stream set-top box), but it does add \u2018within seconds\u2019 to its \u2018almost instantly\u2019 comment, stressing that it will be fast enough to avoid most types of potential spoilers from ruining your World Cup experience.<\/p>\n For the World Cup coverage, Sky has chosen to stream the Real Time match broadcasts from the BBC and ITV on dedicated channels rather than trying to organise the more complicated process of embedding them within the regul. You can access these dedicated streams either by choosing to opt in to them from the regular BBC and ITV channels, or by switching directly to channels 926-944 for different regional BBC RT channels; channel 945 for ITV1 HD RT; or 946 for ITV4 HD RT. <\/p>\n The new Real-Time World Cup feature joins other sports-friendly features already offered on Sky Glass TVs such as a Sport picture preset that presents the matches with a crisp, cool, vivid look, Watch From Start that lets you jump instantly back to the start of the game, pause and rewind features, and hands-free voice control that lets you jump straight to the match coverage simply saying, for instance, \u2018Hello Sky, England vs Croatia\u2019.<\/p>\n If this sounds like the World Cup Experience you\u2019re looking for but you don\u2019t currently have a Sky set up, Sky Glass TVs are currently available for 20% off their usual prices up until June 17, meaning Sky Glass Air prices start at \u00a34.50 a month (for the 43-inch model), while the more premium Sky Glass Gen 2 TVs start at \u00a311 a month (again for the 43-inch model).<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Sky World Cup Promotion Offers Big Price Cuts In Glass Gen 2 And Glass Air TVs<\/p>\n New Interactive Sky Formula 1 Features Let Viewers Take The Wheel<\/p>\n Sky Glass Air TV Is Finally Here\u2014And It Rewrites The TV Price Rulebook<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\nRelated Reading<\/h2>\n