The multichannel TV landscape
Cable TV
Analogue
Analogue cable TV is gradually being phased out over the next two or three years. It has c.50 channel capacity.
Digital
Digital cable was launched in 1999. It can be received by homes with a digital set-top decoder in digital-enabled areas, which is now most of them (overall, half the UK’s homes are passed by cable). Digital cable offers 200+ channels, together with enhanced interactive services. In particular, digital cable’s high capacity, high speed network and “always on” return path allows a wide range of video on demand services. Virgin Media owns and operates the UK’s cable platform. Virgin Media’s PVR, the V+ box, is HD-ready, has 3 tuners, 80 hours recording capacity and offers thousands of hours of on-demand programming.
DSL (broadband via phone lines)
TV via broadband-enabled phone lines is still a nascent market in the UK. The leading provider is Tiscali, which took over HomeChoice and has ambitions to grow its subscriber base from around 60,000* at present. BT Vision launched in December 2006 and uses broadband to deliver on-demand services to TV sets (although its broadcast channels are delivered via DTT). Most ISPs are refusing to carry TV signals because the burden of the required 3mb+ stream is too great, and faster than most existing broadband connections.
Mobile TV
Television services are becoming increasingly available through 3G mobile handsets, on a subscription basis. However, 3G was designed for one-to-one communication rather than broadcast, so a new mobile standard is needed (requiring further network investment) before mobile TV can become widespread. The UK has around 7.8 million 3G mobile phones.** The number of mobile TV subscribers is not accurately known but is thought to be one or two hundred thousand.
*Source: Ofcom, The Consumer Experience Research Report, November 2007; **Ofcom, The Communications Market 2007 referring to year-end 2006.