The Tortoise and the Hare

Triple play services have been brought into sharp focus by recent developments in the TV industry. From Sky’s rumoured interest in Homechoice, to the NTL/Telewest merger, iTV Creative Consultant Richard Chong reviews the current TV landscape and its potential for change in an increasingly on demand world…

For such a long time BSkyB has dominated the digital TV marketplace offering a huge choice of channels, interactive services and fantastic Sky+ PVR technology, available for an additional cost, which allows us to pause and record TV without the need for another appliance. And rightly so, as these are combined with fantastic promotional activity and a well oiled customer service they truly deserve their 8.1 million households.

With this head start and interesting talks with Homechoice and Easynet allowing BSkyB to provide revenue streams in broadcast, broadband and telephony they are the force to be reckoned with.

But wait. Could this be the classic tortoise and hare story?

Sometimes it pays to be the underdog. What’s hindsight for one platform is another platform’s foresight. Digital cable has always been in the shadow of digital satellite but now it is ready to step up and compete.

The joining of forces between NTL and Telewest, and potentially Virgin Mobile, will bring a much clearer directive and allow them to truly exploit their platform capabilities, and most importantly increase their national coverage, along with the migration to Open TV middleware (similar to Sky), and the development of a powerful PVR.

Having a killer application in video on demand (VOD) with a real archive of content currently puts the cable companies ahead of any other platform and with a strong hold in the broadband and telephony market, they appear to be in a great position for the battle of triple or even quad play offerings that Sky are attempting to buy in.

Then there is Freeview, whose sales are currently increasing at a rate around four times that of Sky with 8.9 million units sold, and 5.8 million of those being the primary digital TV provider in the home. It’s easy to set up and with a one off payment and no subscription, it has become a very attractive alternative to the subscriber based platforms.

Combining this with broadband a PVR and with a pay per view system in place the viewer will be able to increase their viewing choice whenever they want to. This is an area that BT are looking at by creating a blend of broadcast terrestrial programming from Freeview with the option for on-demand programming delivered by broadband.

With their knowledge of telephony and broadband supported by content providers such as the BBC, National Geographic, Paramount and Warner Music, the platform set to launch this Autumn, is aimed at empowering the user to take more control over their viewing. Although new to the world of digital broadcast, BT have an excellent CV when it comes to telephony, broadband and complex back end infrastructures.

So there’s the line up. Will the hare keep going and stay well ahead of the game or will the tortoises catch up? All of the competitors are offering similar services, only differing in delivery and cost.

Amongst all of this technological one-upmanship are the platforms looking at what the viewers really want. Do we want endless choice or would we rather not have to make decisions? Do we as a TV watching nation want to get more involved with our televisions or are we happy to sit back and consume?

What is important is that it is the responsibility of all of us involved in this industry to provide quality content rather than quantity. Technology will always progress, but surely we should be creating technology that is driven by the needs of the consumer and the programming rather than developing super platforms that programmes get shoe horned into. Are we all trying to run before we can walk?