This year will see a new Now TV Box from Sky, sporting upgraded hardware. The news came via Sky's second quarter press release, which made a passing mention to the next-gen box in its lengthy document.
It also makes it clear that Now TV will be a priority for the firm this year, which will put even more of its marketing behind the service.
The current box only offers 720p output, so there's a good chance the new model will offer 1080p. With Sky rumoured to be launching a 4K service this year for satellite viewers it would be nice if the Now TV box got an upgrade to support that too.
However it's pretty unlikely given that Sky's Now TV hardware is built by Roku, which doesn't yet have a 4K box.
We checked with Sky about the news and a spokesperson told us: "we will be launching the next generation NOW TV Box with exciting new features. We will give more details at the appropriate time".
Bringing in the newbies
Of course, there is plenty that could be included in that, Sky may finally allow people to install apps on the box like those from Plex and Netflix - something that would be very welcome.
The current Now TV box launched in 2013 and while Sky is reluctant to say how many customers it has, or boxes it has sold, it does mention that it has trebled the "transactions" since 2013 and increased the "buy and keep" by 100%.
Now is also helping Sky to build its audience, the firm says that 90% of customers weren't previously considering joining Sky.
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