Free Digital TV really taking off in Britain

[patsh]

From http://www.independent.co.uk

Growth of Freeview clouds outlook for Murdoch's Sky
By Ciar Byrne, </B>Media Correspondent


16 December 2004

With analogue switch-off in 2012 fast approaching, the latest figures suggest that Freeview, the free-to-air digital television service, is emerging as a real threat to BSkyB.

Nearly four million homes now have Freeview, according to a new report from the media regulator Ofcom, compared to just over 7.1 million households that subscribe to Sky. And while Sky signed up 53,000 new subscribers in the three months to September, more than 10 times as many people, some 590,500, went out and bought Freeview boxes.

In the run-up to Christmas, the number of Freeview boxes sold is expected to soar - a third of all annual sales happen in the second half of the final quarter of the year. The price of boxes has rapidly fallen, leading to an increase in demand - it is now possible to pick up a Freeview box for around £40 and one in five is now bought as a gift.

The Ofcom figures show that in the quarter to September, Sky's share of digital television homes dropped from 55.2 per cent to 53.6 per cent. In contrast, Freeview's share increased 2 per cent to 28.2 per cent.

James Murdoch, Sky's chief executive, remains confident that Sky is on track to achieve its target of signing up 10 million subscribers by 2010. In the long term, Sky believes that Britain will follow the example of America and that 80 per cent of households will have pay-TV.

Many of those buying Freeview boxes are using them for second or third sets and already subscribe to Sky. Ofcom estimates that around 24 per cent of Freeview boxes sold are used in this way. But Graham Lovelace, a television consultant at Lovelace Media, believes Sky still has cause for concern.

"The very clear trend is that Freeview has increased remarkably its overall share of the digital terrestrial TV market. Sky does face a significant threat from the DTT [Digital terrestrial television] platform. But it's a very different market that is buying into Freeview than would otherwise have bought into pay-TV as offered by BSkyB," Mr Lovelace said.

Carolyn Fairburn, one of the main architects of Freeview, who has just left her post as BBC's director of strategy, believes the service has made digital switch-over in 2012 a reality, by appealing to former digital "refuseniks".

"When Freeview launched two years ago, the proportion of people who said they would never take up digital was about 35 per cent and our latest research shows that has halved to around 18 per cent. What Freeview has done is to break down these barriers, people's real resistance to going digital. I think it's one of the things that has put digital switch-over back on the map," Ms Fairburn said.

Freeview was launched in 2002 following the collapse of ITV Digital. Greg Dyke, then the director general of the BBC, put together a deal with Sky and Crown Castle to bid for the platform, believing that audiences wanted a free proposition.

At present it is the fastest- selling home entertainment product in Britain. "It is the simplicity of the idea that here is a product that makes your television do new things," said Ms Fairburn. "It is breaking the idea that digital means pay."


In Ireland, we have done NOTHING as yet about Digital TV. The company who were going to roll it out have gone bellyup over 1 year ago, and nothing at all is happening now. This is the future, yet we are pretending like it doesn't exist......

[Macy]

In Ireland, we have done NOTHING as yet about Digital TV. The company who were going to roll it out have gone bellyup over 1 year ago, and nothing at all is happening now. This is the future, yet we are pretending like it doesn't exist......

No there's some research going into it, that will report next year, which will then be followed by another committee to produce a report to decide which format to use This will no doubt be a different "better" format than the UK and Europe use, leading to the STB's (and integrated TV's) being expensive, leading to low take up, and it getting ditched as a failure. They'll also launch it in a cable area (eg Dublin) where people have the choice of at least 2 other forms of digital TV for the same reason. RTE + Government = untcs on this.

[dortie]

The Freeview box only gives you around 10 channels for free, the channels that are generally not worth a ****.

I've been paying the full Sky package for almost 10 years......
If your a football fanatic and do bugger all else Mon-Fri after work its worth it.

Price of a night on the beer each month, nothing crazy.

[drinkfeckarse]

I've got a full Sky package but I don't feel I get my money's worth from it because I work all week, train a few nights and play football at the weekend. I hardly ever get to watch a film on it.

I'm seriously considering getting one of these freeview boxes and ditching the Sky in a few months (once the football season is over) espeically as Mrs Drinkfeckarse is due to drop our first baby in a couple of months.

I have installed a couple of these boxes in friends/ in laws houses and was surprised at how good they were.

Fair enough you don't get top notch channels but you get about 50 in total (about 30 of which are pure mince). There are some decent ones though like Sky Sports News (which I watch all the time), some music channels, ITV2 & 3, BBC3 & 4, a couple of documentary channels like Nat Geo which I like and I think you get Sky One too. That to me sounds good value for a one off payment of £40 or £50.

Astonished that nothing has been done back home about this yet
Are we that far behind the times??

[drinkfeckarse]

Now that I think of it, I might be open to correction about Sky One being on it but still good value even if it's not. There's at least one movie channel on it,TCM is definately available but obviously that's not great but some decent one's on it now and again.

[Macy]

The Freeview box only gives you around 10 channels for free, the channels that are generally not worth a ****.

I've been paying the full Sky package for almost 10 years......
If your a football fanatic and do bugger all else Mon-Fri after work its worth it.

Price of a night on the beer each month, nothing crazy.

It's all about choice really. For no monthly fee you get all the terrestrial stations in digital quality, plus the digital BBC and ITV stations, plus UKTV History/ Bright Ideas, FTN, abc1, sky travel, 2 music stations, sky sports news.

Down here, we get RTE1 & 2, TV3 and TG4 with crap reception in large area's of the country (let alone digital quality), no interactive options etc. If you're not in a digital cable area, the only way to get digital quality Irish TV is by paying for a sky sub.

Without turning this into another Dsat thread - in the UK you can get either Freeview, or get a Free to View card for the terrestrial stations. We get no option for our licence fee money.

[dortie]

Without turning this into another Dsat thread - in the UK you can get either Freeview, or get a Free to View card for the terrestrial stations. We get no option for our licence fee money.

I pay a TV license up here too and I never watch BBC.
The fact that the license is used to fund BBC fecks me off......I think Sky actually challenged them, as like Sky you should only pay for what you watch in my opinion.

[Macy]

I pay a TV license up here too and I never watch BBC.
The fact that the license is used to fund BBC fecks me off......I think Sky actually challenged them, as like Sky you should only pay for what you watch in my opinion.

Well I don't pay a licence fee to the beeb, but I now watch more BBC than I do RTE (since I got the sat hooked up and get quality picture and all the stuff like sports interactive).

Not really the point, at least you have digital quality from the station you pay the licence fee too. Unlike RTE, who are happy enough to take the licence fee, invest nothing in Digital terrestrial technology, tie themselves to a crap contract with sky that means that you have to pay extra for digital reception, whilst giving brutal analogue reception in much of the country.

Personally, I don't think you can compare the quality of BBC output (both programmes and methods) to RTE - BBC písses all over RTE.... btw I wouldn't exempt the Government for their part in the debacle - in the UK both Government and the BBC are driving the switch over. Our Government has done nothing but continue to fudge the issue.

[dortie]

Our Government has done nothing but continue to fudge the issue.

I dont consider the British Government as mine (Even though I have no option under occupation)

To be honest though I always thought RTE had better programmes and always aired films before the BBC.

[Macy]

I dont consider the British Government as mine (Even though I have no option under occupation)

To be honest though I always thought RTE had better programmes and always aired films before the BBC.

Okay then, the Government that enforces the licence fee where you live

Better programmes I wouldn't be at all convinced (the dinner party ffs), and the film premieres are only once a week. Frankly, the reception where I live is so bad that you can't really enjoy them - seriously I'd have as much chance of getting freeview from Wales than decent terrestrial reception from RTE (it's gonna be the same fook off aerial on our own house anyway for RTE (and an attempt at freeview)).

[pete]

I think we all criticise RTE a lot (as theres a lot of excuses) but when you think of it i'd say most people watch more RTE than any other station.

Digital is largely muck when you think of all those channels that you will never ever watch for even 5 mins.

[patsh]

Digital is largely muck when you think of all those channels that you will never ever watch for even 5 mins.

You are probably right, but analogue signal is not going to be around for too much longer.
I started the thread not about the content on TV, but the fact that analogue signals will be switched off by 2012 at the latest and we in Ireland should be doing something NOW and have our own digital setup, rather than hoping that everybody will sign up to Sky and the problem will bne sorted by someone else.
The ITV Digital setup was a total mess, signal not strong enough, wrong frequency in some cases, but then the BBC took the lead and Freeview is a very decent service, it wouldn't be hugely difficult for the Government/RTE to go to them and get a similar setup and system for this country.
Bloody Chorus can do it!

[pete]

I wouldn't hold my breath for the department of telecommunication to sort out anything soon as they don't have a good track record in broadcasting, TV, Radio, Broadband, Telphones etc...