Media & Multimedia
Virgin Media announces partnership with BBC
Auteur : Michael Philpott
Du : 15/05/2008
Virgin Media, the UK's cable TV operator and second largest pay-TV player, announced yesterday a partnership with the BBC to launch BBC iPlayer onto its platform, making its 3.5 million TV customers the first in the UK to get the popular service via a TV platform. Viewers using BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media will be able to watch full screen pictures at full quality on their television set without the need for downloading
Comment: This is an interesting and important move for Virgin Media for two reasons. Firstly, we are on the brink of a TV revolution. One of the fastest growing new TV applications, whether on traditional or IPTV platforms, is the concept of time shifting. Being able to watch what you want and when you want is starting to capture the public's imagination and will change how we view TV for ever. Perhaps more importantly for pay-TV operators, is that studies have shown that greater use of time shifting content leads to a greater demand for paid for on-demand services. Premium on-demand content is seen by many as one of the best future revenue opportunities for pay-TV operators. Investing in ways to encourage customers to take such services therefore is a sound strategy.
Within the UK TV market the BBC is still a force to be reckoned with. Within the first 3 months since launch, BBC's iPlayer, which allows users to access BBC content via the Internet after it has been broadcast, witnessed over 42 million programmes accessed. iPlayer allows content to be accessed via download or streaming. However, streaming the content leads to reasonably poor quality, especially when played out on a full TV screen, and downloading a programme, although better quality, can take a significant amount of time. Getting the content to the TV, instantly and at good quality, is in the BBC's interest and will increase its popularity further.
This leads to the second interesting point. Over the top (OTT) content is becoming more popular as the mass residential market gets used to the concept of accessing multimedia and entertainment services over the Internet. Not all services will take off, but some will become successful, especially as large content owners such as the BBC start to take their content directly to the consumer. Pay-TV and IPTV operators cannot ignore such players. Doing so could lead to segments of the market turning off traditional pay-TV services altogether in favour of the new Internet-based solutions. By mixing traditional TV and 'Internet TV' services and applications together, TV operators stand a better chance of keeping customers interested in their service offering. Ovum therefore expects to see a lot more of this type of partnership in the future.
Comment: This is an interesting and important move for Virgin Media for two reasons. Firstly, we are on the brink of a TV revolution. One of the fastest growing new TV applications, whether on traditional or IPTV platforms, is the concept of time shifting. Being able to watch what you want and when you want is starting to capture the public's imagination and will change how we view TV for ever. Perhaps more importantly for pay-TV operators, is that studies have shown that greater use of time shifting content leads to a greater demand for paid for on-demand services. Premium on-demand content is seen by many as one of the best future revenue opportunities for pay-TV operators. Investing in ways to encourage customers to take such services therefore is a sound strategy.
Within the UK TV market the BBC is still a force to be reckoned with. Within the first 3 months since launch, BBC's iPlayer, which allows users to access BBC content via the Internet after it has been broadcast, witnessed over 42 million programmes accessed. iPlayer allows content to be accessed via download or streaming. However, streaming the content leads to reasonably poor quality, especially when played out on a full TV screen, and downloading a programme, although better quality, can take a significant amount of time. Getting the content to the TV, instantly and at good quality, is in the BBC's interest and will increase its popularity further.
This leads to the second interesting point. Over the top (OTT) content is becoming more popular as the mass residential market gets used to the concept of accessing multimedia and entertainment services over the Internet. Not all services will take off, but some will become successful, especially as large content owners such as the BBC start to take their content directly to the consumer. Pay-TV and IPTV operators cannot ignore such players. Doing so could lead to segments of the market turning off traditional pay-TV services altogether in favour of the new Internet-based solutions. By mixing traditional TV and 'Internet TV' services and applications together, TV operators stand a better chance of keeping customers interested in their service offering. Ovum therefore expects to see a lot more of this type of partnership in the future.