Sky Launches Low Latency ‘Real Time’ Feature For World Cup Matches

InnovationConsumer TechSky Launches Low Latency ‘Real Time’ Feature For World Cup MatchesByJohn Archer,Senior Contributor.Follow AuthorJun 14, 2026, 05:48am EDTSky 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.Photo: John ArcherOne 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’ve seen the goal happen on your supposedly ‘live’ feed can’t half spoil the moment. British subscription broadcaster Sky has in the past been one of the biggest culprits of this feed delay problem – 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’s 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’s also managed to reduce the time that live World Cup broadcasts from the U.K.’s BBC and ITV broadcasters take to pass through Sky’s distribution systems.The so-called Real Time technology behind this, originally introduced for some of Sky’s own live sports coverage, streamlines the production and distribution path of these specific broadcasts to a point where the pictures are delivered ‘almost instantly’, to use Sky’s own words. Sky doesn’t provide an exact latency time figure for its Real Time broadcasts (which are essentially live streams when they’re appearing on Sky’s Glass TVs or Stream set-top box), but it does add ‘within seconds’ to its ‘almost instantly’ comment, stressing that it will be fast enou...