The upgrades focus mostly on the new remote control associated with the Sky Q platform, adding ability to switch between apps by talking to the remote control, so that users can flick between Disney+, Netflix, Amazon, the BBC iPlayer, and apps like Fiit without having to scroll ponderously through menus. Sky has also added additional ways of recording TV programmes, for example saying “record” or “record this” into the voice remote while watching live TV.

There is now a dedicated page for Audio Descriptive Content, allowing access to hundreds of shows and movies capable of being recorded and watched later in response to spoken commands.

This comes after several years of slow progress for TV voice and resistance from consumers to adopting this medium for controlling the remote. This partly reflects the poor quality of earlier offerings and the fact that users have higher expectations of their TV UIs than of those associated with other devices and services. After all, while the traditional remote had its limitations, it did at least enable swift reliable channel changing.

Certainly, consumers were underwhelmed with early TV UI voice functions a few years ago and this led some industry analysts and evangelists unwisely to write off the technology longer term. It may seem an age ago but it was only a year before the Covid-19 pandemic was getting fully underway that voice discovery and control was almost written off by a panel at the Connected TV World Summit held in London during March 2019.

The verdict then was that voice could never run the whole UI and would at best only become part of the experience. Among sceptics there was Simon Adams, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote, a subsidiary of audience measurement group Nielsen Holdings specialising in music, video, and sports metadata, as well as automatic content recognition (ACR). He suggested that while voice might figure for search when the user knows exactly what to look for, it would continue to need backing up by text and scroll for browsing more generally when unsure of what to watch.

Scroll forward 15 months to July 2020 well into the pandemic and sentiment was swinging partly towards voice, but still with reservations. By then voice search on TV was gaining in popularity, according to TiVo, famed for its eponymous Digital Video Recorder and by then part of technology Intellectual Property company Xperi. TiVo found that 39% of respondents to its Q1 2020 survey had access to voice, up 10% over the previous year, but that still less than a quarter of those were using it. The biggest surprise was that most people still preferred the clumsy and slow on-screen keyboards to search for a movie or TV show, despite enjoying much faster navigation via similar mechanisms on their desk top PCs or laptops.

However, Sky is now finding that patience with the cumbersome on-screen keyboards is finally wearing out as voice control becomes smoother and more comprehensive.

According to Sky, speaking to TVs for channel changing and pausing shows has soared in popularity, with millions of requests each year via its voice search technology.

As Fraser Stirling, Group Chief Product Officer, Sky, put it: “The latest improvements to Sky Q’s voice control makes it easier to quickly switch between your favourite apps and channels, plus with Sky Sports Recap on Sky Go, sports fans, like me, will never have to worry about missing out on any of the action again. We’re continuing to make it even easier to enjoy the entertainment that matters to you.”

Other service providers are also finding increased take up of voice, but most lack the resources to develop their own capabilities in competition with the internet or technology giants like Comcast. BT TV went with Amazon Alexa devices, including the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers, for voice control. This allows users to search for shows with a simple voice request, spanning all channels, players and apps as Sky can, but mostly confined to entry of show titles.

Then in August 2021, Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s biggest telco, started offering a voice-enabled Apple TV 4K remote control system designed specifically for multichannel pay TV operators by Universal Electronics, a provider of control systems for set top boxes and smart home devices.

So Deutsche Telekom is hitched to Apple’s Siri voice control features through a dedicated remote that incorporates the spoken search and control capabilities associated with Apple TV 4K into its own MagentaTV service. This is the line being adopted by the majority of pay TV operators as they seek to harness voice by riding with the few big leaders in that field such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, hoping to score by coupling these capabilities most effectively with their own UIs and content line ups.