Tata Sky has constantly been adding new features to its Set-Top Boxes. Today, the leading DTH operator announced a new feature called ‘Smart Guide,’ for its existing SD and HD Set-Top Box users. Smart Guide by Tata Sky enables the users to discover and consume content on television in a smart way. The company has announced this feature in collaboration with Pay TV. Tata Sky also enhanced the linear search functionality on its STBs. It is good to see Tata Sky adding new features to the basic Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) STBs. A press release from Tata Sky also confirmed the new feature has been rolled out to more than 15 million STBs across India.
Tata Sky ‘Smart Guide’ for STBs: What Exactly Is It
As mentioned above, Tata Sky Smart Guide will allow the existing SD and HD STB users to discover content. Smart Guide will display content recommendations and they can be easily accessed through the newly revamped Guide button on the Tata Sky remote. The channel guide screen offers thumbnail views of the most-watched channels, genres and platform services by the subscribers, under the banners – ‘Your Top Channels’, ‘Trending Channels’, ‘Favourite Genre’ etc. based on a subscriber’s viewing history and the time spent viewing a particular channel or genre. The feature not only gives quick access to the most viewed channels but also recommends more channels based on the genres viewers like to watch. In the case of multi-connection homes, recommendations will be different for the primary and secondary Set-Top Box in line with individual preferences. As we all know, Tata Sky’s basic SD and HD STBs do not offer internet connectivity, so the recommendations will be of linear TV channels. Furthermore, Tata Sky also enhanced the Linear Search feature to enable subscribers to search for channels via channel name, offering a hassle-free way of switching to their favourite channel. Tata Sky users can activate the Linear search directly from the banner, guide grid and full-screen video by only pressing the ‘0’ button on the remote, thereby offering subscribers a faster option to discover their preferred content. More than 15 million STBs from Tata Sky have received the new Smart Guide feature.
