After almost two years of harping on about their iPTV/download/Freeview service BT Vision, BT has announced that the product will launch on 4 December -- just in time for the Christmas market, eh?Well, not quite.
For a start, it's still a soft-launch -- or a "measured roll-out of the new service that would pick up momentum in the spring", as a BT spokesman described it.
Which is basically spin for "we've made a right hash of this one, and we're just going to release it three weeks before Christmas in the vain hope that a few deluded individuals might be struggling to buy a present for their partner and might see this as a way out."
With the product still largely unproven, and competitors like BSkyB, NTL/Telewest and dozens of other Freeview PVR manufacturers already several months (if not years) into the UK PVR/iPTV market, BT Vision looks likely to be a certain turkey.
More analysis:
The Guardian: Paul Richards, a media analyst at Numis Securities, does not believe that BT Vision will pose a serious threat to BSkyB's business. "There's a big gap between the Freeview offering and something like Sky, but if BT can find a niche in there to give Freeview customers a bit more, that's probably enough to give them a viable model."
The Register: Few expect BT to wrest a very large portion of the pay TV market away from Sky and cable monopoly NTL (soon to be rebranded as Virgin Media). The rationale backing Vision surrounds customer retention and adding value to its position in the broadband market.
1. At present the service isn't that appealing. £14.99 for a download of a 'recent' release movie, £9.99 for a 'classic'. Sorry, but you can buy DVDs, official release DVDs, for less than that. In some cases these titles can be picked up for £5.
Unless they realise that the costs they are currently intent on charging users is less than attractive and rejig their business plan (for example, bringing the download prices in line with DVD rental prices or pay per view prices on cable) then this will not work as effectively as they would like.
It also appears to be PC-centric which means that Mac and possibly Linux users are excluded, which again isn't very clever or particularly well thought out.
What they do with the TV shows might shift the balance on their service, but this is doubtful.
Posted at 6:44AM on Nov 29th 2006 by jings