Tvcompass Ditches £29 STB Freeview's Moment of Truth
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November 13, 2002 Vol. 5 No. 23 www.telecomweb.com incorporating INTELLIGENCE ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING BUSINESS Freeview’s Moment Of Truth contents Mark Holmes senior editor integrated digital TV sets (IDTVs), which com- bine a widescreen monitor with a digital TV The Freeview service, launched in the UK set-top box. The failed ITV Digital pay-based on Oct. 30 with over 30 free radio and TV service whose frequencies Freeview has inher- 2 Cable Players Cry channels and backed by an aggressive mar- ited made much of the potential of IDTVs to Foul in Austria keting campaign, will attempt to persuade the boost its subscriber numbers. The idea was millions of people who don’t want pay-TV that consumers would trade in their existing that there is now a legitimate and compelling analogue receivers for IDTVs when they came 4 Singer: Speed Is alternative. If it works, it could represent a to upgrade. However, the devices were expen- Essential For UK Cable pivotal point in the fortunes of DTT, and a sive, and sales of IDTVs in the UK have thus possible model for DTT services elsewhere. far proved disappointing. As reported in 5 TFI Sees Advertising While the channel line-up offers an inter- Inside Digital TV (Volume 5, No. 2), only Revenues Increase esting blend of mainly entertainment-focused 120,000 of these sets were sold in 2001. services, it will certainly not give pay-TV Will the launch of Freeview (which has operators any sleepless nights. But, it does been based thus far on the availability of 6 VOD Strategies Will offer an intriguing proposition. cheap plug-in adapters) do anything to boost Prove Far From Easy Peter Davies, director of distribution and IDTV take-up? On the face of it, it seems strategy at the BBC, believes the market unlikely: The majority of adapters available at opportunity is considerable. He told Inside retail range in price from £85 to £130 (133.5 7 BBCi Looks North Digital TV in an exclusive interview: “The euros to 204.2 euros), a far cheaper way of research we have done shows that there are accessing Freeview than buying an expensive 8 Briefs about 10 million households who don’t want IDTV which start at around £400 (628.3 euros) pay-TV services. So, 10 million out of 25 mil- and rise to several thousand pounds. Despite lion is a huge number of people. We think it these harsh economics, Davies believes IDTVs is going to be really big.” will have a significant role to play in DTT The launch of Freeview raises a number of take-up in the UK. He said: “Once we get over intriguing questions. One of them concerns continued page 3 TVcompass Ditches £29 STB Barry Flynn Editor sidise the set-top box, but has a staff of around 23 per- reveal it yet, but he expected recoup the subsidy from sonnel, and its “convergent” to have them on board “cer- TVcompass, which was shopping, travel, gambling remote appear to have sur- tainly before Christmas.” planning to bring a free-to- and advertising revenues. vived Voller’s departure. John From what Roberts says, air adapter to the UK DTT These would derive from Roberts, TVcompass’ chief TVcompass’s abandonment of market for just £29 (45.5 transactional services software architect, told Inside the 29-pound set-top box euros) in Spring 2003, has accessed via the ‘wireless’- Digital TV: “TVcompass is strategy (which was greeted now abandoned the idea, fol- enabled remote control. looking for a replacement with a certain amount of deri- lowing CEO Stephen Voller’s When the notion was CEO at the moment. (While) sion by the industry) has poaching by a rival DTT tech- revealed, Inside Digital TV we are not planning to devel- proved key to its financial nology outfit. was sceptical about the op the set-top box and the survival. “We were unable to Voller was the brains implied level of transactional remote control together, we get funding based on that behind the unusual project, revenues, but thought there are working on a standalone business plan,” conceded which involved an innovative were lots of good reasons for remote control device.” He Roberts, describing it as combination of set-top box adding mobile phone capabil- added that it looked as if the “basically Stephen’s baby”. and mobile-enabled remote ity to a remote control device, company had now secured But “we always had a busi- control. Voller’s idea (see particularly in a DTT environ- “significant funding.” Asked ness plan in place for just the Inside Digital TV Vol.5 ment lacking a return-path. for the identity of the new remote control.” While he No.16) was to heavily sub- Both the company, which investor, he said he could not continued page 2 TVcompass Ditches £29 STB continued from cover recognized that the set-top box strategy “Obviously that would have to depend represented one possible way of getting on how it’s sold, whether or not it is sub- SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM the remote into homes, “of course the sidised by ourselves or by anybody else, Inside Digital TV is published fortnightly and costs are much higher – and also the which retail channel it goes through and is available on subscription only. Annual subsidy model of selling it for 29 pounds then of course the cost of materials at subscription is £547/$797 (25 issues). actually is riskier than the alternative.” that point. So there’s no indication of Roberts was unwilling to be drawn on what it would be.” Surname a precise date for the launch of the While Inside Digital TV is aware of First Name mobile-enabled remote control. “It’s very the identity of the company, which Job Title unlikely to be ready by Spring (2003),” Voller has moved to, that information Company he said. “I mean we don’t actually have has been embargoed until after this edi- Address a date set, but it won’t be then.” tion goes to press. It will therefore be As for the likely price of the remote (it announced in the next issue. sports a colour display and is Bluetooth- >>TVcompass on +44 (0)20 7716 enabled), Roberts was equally vague: 5805.<< Country Tel Fax Cable Players Cry Foul In Austria e-mail I I enclose payment of £547/$797 Mark Holmes senior editor ORF programming).” Cheques to be made payable to Despite objections by Austrian cable PBI-UK Ltd Cable operators in Austria believe the players, the RTR is determined to make or charge my credit card government is poised to use public TV DTT a success in Austria. It is preparing I Mastercard I Visa I Amex licence fees to implement DTT there. While a pilot project in Graz, Austria’s second Card Number ____/____/____/____ nothing has been decided, they believe largest city, which is located in the south, Exp. Date __/__ Please invoice my company: Order No.____________ such a plan would be inherently unfair. for launch in 2003. This project will go a For prices in Euros please call the number below. René Tritscher, deputy managing long way to determining the main tech- director, Association of Telecoms and nical issues surrounding the implemen- Please send to: Client Relations Broadcasting Companies in Austria told PBI Media, tation of DTT in Austria. 1201 Seven Locks Road, Suite 300 Inside Digital TV: “The problem is that The results are likely to be known by Potomac, MD 20854 the cable operators have to pay their the end of next year, said Grinschgl, Tel: +1 (301) 354-2100 own money to build up their own infra- adding: “This project in Graz will be the e-mail: [email protected] structure and now a second infrastruc- first to be open to private households. In The Team ture will be built, which will be financed the past, we have had only technical by the government. We think this isn’t projects. Five hundred households will be fair, as cable players have to had to build selected for the project. We want to find Editor Barry Flynn infrastructure with their own money.” how interested consumers are in digital e-mail: [email protected] However, in an exclusive interview, TV, and different applications such as Senior Editor Mark Holmes Alfred Grinschgl, managing director of the interactivity. The digital TV project will e-mail: [email protected] Rundfunk & Telekom Regulierung (RTR), also be open to other households in Graz. Production Editor Tracey Lilly the Austrian Broadcasting Authority, told Other people will have the opportunity to Senior Marketer Patrick Landis Inside Digital TV that he believed using buy a STB and to be part of this project.” Senior Managing Editor Jim Rogers licence fees was a valid approach. He said: In terms of the transition from analogue e-mail: [email protected] “We have suggested setting up a digitiza- to digital in Austria, Grinschgl admits he Publisher Diane Schwartz tion fund supported by Austrian state can’t give a definitive time on how long it broadcasting fees. I feel that using those will take, although he is optimistic it could Published by PBI Media funds for this purpose is justified, as a be done within five years. He says: “We Editorial and Subscriptions Office: large part (33 per cent) of the fees collect- can assume that DVB-T coverage will PBI Media, 1201 Seven Locks Road, Suite 300 ed have not been used for broadcasting reach 70 per cent of Austrian viewers five Potomac, MD 20854 purposes in the past, but rather for gener- years after the start of the project, in 2008.