Sky has launched Your Multiview in time for the new football season, offering a way for sports fans to watch up to four live Sky Sports events simultaneously on a single screen. Multiview represents a long-standing ambition of interactive television. The BBC and Sky pioneered multiscreen viewing with Wimbledon coverage over a quarter of a century ago, but the technology available today makes it more practical.

Sports fans no longer have to choose between the biggest live events as Sky launches ‘Your Multiview’, allowing customers to watch up to four live Sky Sports events simultaneously on one screen. There is no need to switch channels or reaching for a second screen.

Your Multiview, available on Sky Glass, Sky Stream and Sky Q, enables subscribers choose up to four live Sky Sports events and watch them side by side on a single screen.

Viewers can follow football matches from across the Premier League, EFL, SPFL, or WSL at once, or stay across a packed day of live sport spanning football, F1, cricket, tennis, golf, NFL and rugby – all without switching channels or checking for results elsewhere.

The new feature allows viewers to spotlight an event to change the on-screen layout, select the audio they want to hear, and switch any event to full screen when it’s the one they don’t want to miss.

“There’s more live sport for fans to enjoy than ever, and we want to make it as easy as possible to follow all the action,” explained Carli Kerr, the managing director of Sky TV & NOW. “With Your Multiview, viewers no longer have to choose between the biggest moments happening across multiple channels. It could be two exciting football matches happening at the same time, or Super Sunday coinciding with a Grand Prix and the final day of a golf Major.

“Only on Sky can fans enjoy so much sport together on one screen and stay in control of what they watch. Along with scores, stats, and clips at the touch of a button, this is another way we’re making Sky the best place to watch live sport.”

It is a new take on an old idea. Multiview represents a long-standing ambition for interactive television: allowing viewers to move beyond the single editorial viewpoint and take more control over how they experience live sport. Sky Sports Active offered something similar as early as 1999.

More than 25 years ago, Wimbledon provided one of the first major demonstrations of the potential of interactive television. The Wimbledon Interactive service, developed by the BBC during the early years of digital television, allowed viewers to follow multiple courts and access live scores from across the courts. The award-winning service became one of the flagship examples of how digital television could offer something more than a traditional channel experience.

The appeal was clear, and it proved very popular at the time. A tennis tournament is not a single event. It is a collection of simultaneous stories. The most interesting match for one viewer may be a secondary court for another. It gave viewers more choice and was simple to use. More significantly, it worked across multiple platforms: satellite, cable, and terrestrial television.

The same approach was applied to other major sporting events, like the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Commonwealth Games.

Yet it was a technical trick. The multiple pictures were a broadcast mosaic that was assembled as part of a single signal, and each separate stream required its own television channel. It may have looked like the future of television, but at the time it was difficult to deliver.

Modern technology makes it much easier to assemble multiple streams dynamically in a custom view. Instead of a broadcaster creating one additional mosaic channel, the viewer can create a personal combination of available streams.

Microsoft pioneered this with their Mediaroom platform back in 2007, almost twenty years ago, which offered what it called dynamic MultiView capabilities with multiple picture-in-picture views.

Sky is not simply offering a four-way split screen. It describes the feature as putting fans in control of how they watch. A viewer can combine football matches from different competitions, or follow different sports including Formula 1, cricket, tennis, golf, NFL and rugby. The viewer can then decide which event receives their attention at any moment.

It is like having a master control room in the home. That raises a question that the television industry has wrestled with for years: do viewers really want to become directors?

There have been many attempts to give audiences more control over live events. Choose-your-view services have offered alternative camera angles, statistics, commentary options and additional streams. They have often demonstrated that some viewers value the extra choice. Yet many viewers still prefer to sit back and trust the editorial judgement of a skilled production team.

Sky is not alone in exploring this direction. YouTube has introduced its own Multiview feature, allowing viewers to watch up to four live streams simultaneously on one screen. The service has been used for sports including NFL Sunday Ticket, where viewers can select combinations of games and switch audio or move into full-screen viewing.

The early promise of interactive television was that audiences would have more control over their viewing experience. The reality proved more complicated. Most viewers still value great editorial decisions.

Traditional broadcasters and online platforms are converging on a similar idea: the screen is becoming a flexible canvas rather than simply a window onto a single channel.

The question remains as to whether the average viewer will want to watch more than one sport at a time, but the ability to keep an eye on multiple event at a time and flick seamlessly between them remains an enduring element of the interactive television proposition. It has now become so normal that it is no longer described as interactive.

www.sky.com

Charter and Cox have created the largest cable operator in America just as the word “cable” is losing its traditional meaning as a term for television. The deal is less about protecting television and more about building a national connectivity platform capable of competing with wireless operators, streaming platforms and satellite broadband.

Charter Communications has completed its previously announced transaction with Cox Communications and the acquisition of Liberty Broadband Corporation to create the leading broadband and video company in the United States. The Cox name will now be replaced with the Spectrum brand, although the parent company plans to change its name to Cox Communications.

“The addition of Cox to the Spectrum footprint is one that can be celebrated by customers, employees and investors alike,” said Chris Winfrey, the president and chief executive of Charter. “Together, we will bring the best products, at the best price, coupled with the highest level of customer service to more customers across our expanded 45-state Spectrum footprint.”

“The market has changed considerably over the past decade, and regional providers like Spectrum are competing with national and even global connectivity and entertainment companies. Today, with expanded scale, we are better positioned to compete and continue investment in our products and service, tools and platforms, and to further the capability and reach of our Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network.”

“When Liberty first invested in Charter more than a decade ago, we saw an opportunity to build scale behind a great management team and operating model,” said John C Malone, the chairman of Liberty Broadband. “The combination of Charter and Cox creates a stronger, more competitive company to further invest and innovate, while giving Liberty Broadband shareholders a direct interest in its future.”

The combined company is being described as the largest cable operator in the US and one of the largest broadband and video providers. It will serve around 37–38 million customers, pass more than 70 million homes and businesses, and operate across 45 states. It will have about 38 million customers, the majority of which are for broadband, with about 14 million video customers.

The traditional narrative has been that cable companies are in decline because video subscribers are moving to streaming. Yet the response from the cable industry is not retreat but consolidation.

The rationale is that the future cable company is no longer primarily a televison distributor. It is a broadband network operator that also packages video, mobile, Wi-Fi, streaming aggregation, and connected entertainment.

Charter’s own language is revealing. It repeatedly describes itself as a “broadband and video company” rather than a cable company.

The deal is less about protecting television and more about building a national connectivity platform capable of competing with wireless operators, streaming platforms and satellite broadband. The strategic asset it the network infrastructure.

corporate.charter.com

The total number of fixed internet connections in the United Kingdom remained flat in the middle of 2026 at 29.37 million, up by just 1,000 over the last quarter. The number of consumer connections actually fell by over 9,000 to just over 27 million, while business connections rose. A substantial number of people are still unable to connect or participate in a digital society, and it is not necessarily due to lack of investment in connectivity infrastructure. A new report suggests what a successful transition to a connected society could look like.

Full fibre connections in the United Kingdom reached almost 14 million, up from 10.7 million a year earlier, as reported by Point Topic.

BT had 8.23 million consumer connections, of which 4.50 million are fibre to the premises, while the Openreach fibre footprint reached 23.44 million premises passed, with 9.35 million connections.

Alternative network providers now have just under 4 million subscribers between them, according to PointTopic estimates.

The market for internet connectivity is essentially flat, even as migration to full fibre connections continues at a pace.

What we are seeing is increasing competition from often overlapping network providers, while some homes remain unconnected or limited by poor connectivity.

An estimated 3-4 million people in the United Kingdom are unable, or unwilling, to participate in the digital society. The number is not really clear. That figure comes from Home Office figures from 2023.

It is estimated that a further 14-22 million people face at least one significant barrier to accessing the digital services on which we increasingly depend.

An initiative called The Connection Project, funded by businesses, including the BBC and ITV, aims to answer the question: what would it take to create a digital society in which everyone can participate and thrive.

Its first report, published a year ago, reached an uncomfortable conclusion that the country has invested heavily in digital infrastructure but has not kept pace on participation.

The second report, Connected, sets out a vision for what success could look like, identifies the conditions that successful digital societies share, and proposes a wider national ambition.

That is relevant in the context of the consideration of the future of digital television distribution.

Some suggest that online television and video could drive the adoption of internet connectivity. Others point to the gap between those that can currently receive online video on their television, which is about 70% of homes, and the challenge of delivering universal coverage that is free at the point of use.

The report identifies five requirements for a successful transition to online television.

• Ubiquitous connectivity — Nobody loses access to news and entertainment from the UK’s public service broadcasters. The transition does not proceed until reliable and affordable connectivity is available for every household that needs it.

• Simple and inclusive design — Watching television remains as simple and familiar as it is today. Live television and public service channels are easy to find, while new functionality enhances the experience without becoming a barrier to those who just want to watch.

• Trusted support — Nobody is left to navigate the change alone. People know where to go for help, and those who need additional assistance can access practical support from trusted organisations, family members and carers, face to face and by phone — not just online.

• Managed transitions — The transition happens gradually, predictably and with public confidence. This means clear milestones, regular reviews and agreed readiness criteria alongside a well-communicated timetable, to ensure the deadline is driving readiness and participation.

• Shared accountability — Progress is measured transparently and risks are identified early. Industry, government and civil society share responsibility for ensuring that coverage, affordability, participation and support improve throughout the transition.

The report suggests that the transition from analogue to digital television provides a precedent for a managed transition. A clear timetable, coordinated communications and targeted support helped millions of households adapt successfully, demonstrating that large-scale transitions can be managed with public confidence.

The challenge is that for many people, while it has brought massive choice, online viewing is now a lot harder than the simple television experience used to be.

www.point-topic.com
www.connectionproject.co.uk