|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
UK & Ireland Market Report
Broadband TV News, Nov 2008, Pages: 61
The dynamism of the UK market gives the perception that it is a template for the development of digital television. Innovations shaping the market extend from the Freeview DTT service, through Sky’s confidence in their personal video recorder service and high definition broadcasts, to the BBC’s iPlayer, a landmark for on demand television services, not only stimulating the broadband TV sector, but also the cable operator Virgin Media that has championed catch-up TV as part of its wider VOD offering.
Neighbouring Ireland is only just launching its DTT service, but will be able to use the latest technologies, making the proposed pay-TV platform one of the most advanced in the world. It will compete with the established Sky DTH platform and a newly merged national cable operation
This new report, part of the Broadband TV News Briefing Series provides a concise analysis of both the UK and Ireland, and how ten years after the launch of digital services, new opportunities continue to emerge. At over 25,000 words it is significantly longer than the other products in the series.
- Understand the business models of the leading players
- Discover how to place your content on the broadcast platforms
- Contrast the different approaches to high definition television
- Evaluate the prospects for IPTV
- Analyse key subscriber data
- Assess the prospects for high definition television
- Learn how established broadcasters are embracing new distribution technologies
- View the technologies powering the next generation broadcast platforms
Aside from a common language, there is much in common between the UK and Irish markets. The two countries are both served by BSkyB, which has broadcast from the Astra satellite system since 1989, and latterly also used Eutelsat capacity from the combined 28 degrees East orbital slot. Consequently, the majority of multi-channel services in the UK are also found in the Republic. However, while the UK has run digital terrestrial television for the past ten years, with varying degrees of success, Ireland is only now getting the project underway. The Boxer-Communicorp consortium that has won the Irish tender is taking a largely pay approach when it launches in the autumn of 2009 as opposed to the free-toair platform Freeview that has served the UK since the demise of ITV Digital in 2002. With UPC as their principal operator, Ireland’s cable networks have a distinctly European feel about them. Digital services now close to nationwide adoption, using technologies and branding that would be just as familiar to viewers in Amsterdam as they are in Dublin. Branding is not a trouble for UK cable.
In Virgin Media, the troubles of the past have been largely forgotten, as the public is presented with a familiar brand and an offer dominated by high-speed fibre-optic broadband. The operator has just come through a bitter dispute with BSkyB over carriage of the broadcaster’s basic channels, and there remain many issues between them that are still unresolved as regulator Ofcom completes its review of the UK pay-TV market. At the top of the list is HD, which BSkyB has made its own, though with potential competition from both Freesat, the BBCITV free-to-air satellite platform, and Freeview, that will have HD channels available from three of the public broadcasters by the end of 2009.
The role of IPTV in the two markets remains uncertain. While BT has begun to build a significant base it is a long way behind the major digital TV platforms and Ireland has yet to enjoy any significant activity in the area. The question ahead is whether Sky will also use IPTV – it already has its own broadband internet operation – in order to add a catch-up TV service in the same way that Canal+ has done for its satellite viewers in France. To date it is Virgin that has built the demand for on demand content in the UK, boosted by its own version of the BBC’s catch-up TV service the iPlayer, though BT’s offer is equally broad and cannot be discounted. As broadband speeds become faster, the whole television delivery mechanism could change as increasing numbers bypass the managed services and instead adopt Over the Top delivery offered by the iPlayer, ITV.com and maybe the proposed
free content of Kangaroo.
Customers who bought this item also bought
United Kingdom - Convergence - Triple Play & Digital TV
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)
Ireland - Convergence - Triple Play & Digital TV
New Zealand - Broadcasting - FTA Pay TV & Digital TV - Statistics & Overview
Which Network to Deliver HDTV? Cable - Internet - IPTV - Satellite - DTT (2008-2013)
SKY Network Television New Zealand
The future of UK DTT: Developing digital beyond the pay-TV market
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc - Financial and Strategic Analysis Review
European and US digital TV, 2006 - 2012 (Review Report)
2008 Digital Media Technologies - Digital TV, Mobile TV, IPTV, MPEG
The Future of TV: The Evolving Landscape of HDTV, IPTV and Mobile TV
Digital Broadcasting Market Report 2008
|
|
|
|
