Did I just miss this? With the latest patch I can now use voice commands to control the sky box; pause, play and swap channels by saying watch channel 4 for instance.
Planner and some other functions aren't there but pretty impressed so far.
I've not bothered with the pass-thru capability on the XB1 up to now. My AV setup isn't ideal when it comes to line-of-sight for the Sky remote so may save me flapping my arms about.
If you use smartglass you can select the "remote" screen and it will show you "standard" PVR type buttons which will also control the sky box...in case you don't want to talk.
For freeview (not sure about Sky)you can say "watch BBC 1" and it will change to that channel.