Britain's switchover to digital - The history of multichannel TV

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

AS BRITAIN closes in on its much hyped complete switch to digital television; here is a look at the defining moments in multichannel television.

     Before it began, choice on TV was of course very limited with only BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 around.  There was cable television around in those days, but it cost an absolute fortune to setup.  Then in 1989, all that changed with the launch of the Astra satellite and with it, Sky Television.  A selection of five channels; Sky One, Sky News, Sky Movies, Eurosport and MTV plus a wide selection of other specialist channels and European offerings was designed to give the viewer more choice.  Sky was synonymous for being the first company to offer free installation, only paying for the subscription to the channels.

NO TURNING BACK: The main content was on Sky!

     One year later, a rival satellite service was set up, called British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB).  Planned to launch before Sky, several fundamental problems put it back and the service was written on the wall from the start.  It disappeared at the end of the year, in a merger with Sky to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB).  The company soon went on to end the terrestrial era of league football by earning a contract to air matches for the newly formed English Premier League in 1992.  Elsewhere, cable television was still lagging behind, but becoming more affordable with the lower prices being offered by specialist companies like NTL and Cable & Wireless.  Though these services had lower quality signals than satellite, their choice was pretty much the same.

     In 1997, the then newly-elected Labour government passed a bill to phase out analogue television by the year 2012.  To help with this, they set-up a new platform of multichannel television called Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).  A consortium of Sky and the two biggest companies of the ITV network, Carlton and Granada, won the auction to set up a service.  However, a competition review forced Sky to drop out and led to Rupert Murdoch launching the first ever digital satellite service Sky Digital the following year.  Over 200 channels were now available at the viewer’s fingertips.

CATCHY: But ITV Digital was a doomed failure

     A few months after the launch of Sky Digital, Carlton and Granada unveiled their DTT service, On Digital.  Basically a stripped down version of cable, it concentrated in only offering the basic content that viewers would want.  This didn’t succeed, mainly due to Sky marketing it in a negative manner.  Three years after its launch, the service rebranded to ITV Digital and they wrestled away contract rights to The Football League.  A rise in subscribers didn’t come and the service collapsed less than a year later, replaced by the more popular Freeview service, offering channels without the need for subscription.

     By this time, cable had also gone digital through both NTL and Telewest’s services.  Both companies were taken over in 2007 by Virgin, thus creating Virgin Media.  They did no favours by getting into a row with BSkyB over the carriage of its channels, leading them to be removed from the Virgin service for more than 18 months.  Meanwhile, in 2006, Sky continued its trend of firsts by being the first company to offer high definition (HD) programming with Sky HD (renamed Sky+ HD two years later).  Meanwhile, Freeview had gained a service called TopUpTV that offered additional channels for a subscription cost and Freesat was launched in 2008, being the first satellite service with only free-to-air content.

     2008 saw Britain’s long-awaited move in digital only television begin.  Over a four year process, analogue will be switched off and replaced with digital signals.  It will no doubt increase choice to many people who can’t access digital services at this point in time but the question is, will it succeed?  We will have to wait until the whole process is complete.

Sky revamps its entertainment offering

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

TUESDAY saw BSkyB perhaps undertake its biggest overhaul in television viewing since it launched the digital satellite era back in 1998.  It reshuffled its general entertainment division, following the takeover of the Virgin Media Television Group last summer.  It saw the launch of a new channel and new beginnings for old favourites but will viewers notice many changes.  The answer is not a simple one but the offerings from these channels should help make their minds up.

The centrepiece of these changes is a brand new channel, Sky Atlantic.  Sky has since the beginning of their life in 1989, been the leader in specialising in US shows, so the launch of a channel based on this gender was a certain no-brainer, it had to happen someday.  It will focus mainly on US dramas, mostly from the HBO library and repeats of classic ones.  The channel’s big hits are expected to come from the smash-hit new shows Boardwalk Empire and Blue Bloods.  The classics are expected to feature the likes of 24, Battlestar Galatica and the entire Star Trek collection, acquired from Virgin.  Another big-hitter to be on Atlantic is Mad Men, poached from BBC4.  Sky Atlantic will only be available on the Sky Digital platform.

A classic television channel meanwhile has been given a rebrand; Living officially joins the Sky family and becomes Sky Living.  Having in recent years moved away from lifestyle programmes in its original origins and become more of a hard-hitting female channel, there is expected to be not much chance at the station with shows like Next Top Model, both UK and US versions, Bedlam and Criminal Minds expected to remain.  Shows from Sky’s archive that fit the channel’s target audience will also be moved here whilst the channel’s big coup is expected to come later on in the year with the arrival of well-known, and nowadays controversial, figure.  Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) is moving over from ITV to continue her recent foray into making television programmes.

On the old favourites, there will also be a few tweaks but nothing major.  Sky1 will continue its showings of The Simpsons, House, Got To Dance, A League Of Their Own and much more whilst continuing to develop new original content and will also introduce a selection of shows from the former Bravo channel, which closed at the start of the year.  Sky2 will have no changes at all, remaining as a catch-up service to Sky1 whilst Sky3 continues to offer programmes targeted for Freeview viewers.  However, they will change its name to PickTV next month, which many will say is extremely stupid.

Finally Challenge also becomes part of Sky now and joins the Freeview platform, replacing the now defunct Channel One (formerly Virgin1).  It means for the first time, viewers will be able to watch classic episodes of their favourite gameshows like Gladiators, Catchphrase, The Crystal Maze and Takeshi’s Castle without having to pay a subscription.  Sky have yet to confirm if any changes will be ahead for the station like the possibility of adding the Sky prefix to the channel’s name or introducing any of Sky’s former and current gameshows to the channel.

Perhaps though the most intriguing move in this overhaul is the heavily marketed, ‘HD Swap’.  Viewers who have a Sky+ HD box will see their HD channels swap places in the EPG with their SD counterparts (e.g. Sky 1 HD will be on Channel 106 now on Sky+ HD, compared to remaining at 170 on SD boxes).  It is designed by Sky to get its customers to use more of their HD services.

There is no doubt that these changes will enhance the viewer’s choice and quite possibly change the way they perceive about Sky’s programme offering.  Tuesday’s events at Sky will perhaps rank as one of its biggest days in the corporation’s 22 year history.

Sky Sports Price Cut - But They Are Not Happy!

Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 have been deemed too expensive and have been asked to cut their prices by the media regulator, OFCOM.  However, Sky isn’t very happy with this forceful move by the regulator.

The chief executive of BSkyB, finds OFCOM’s findings as ‘extraordinary,’ and insisted that they want to ‘appeal against the decision via the courts.’  On the other hand, OFCOM has previously warned Sky about its prices, largely because Sky holds the majority of rights to key sporting events, such as The Ashes, the US Open Tennis and FA Premier League football.  They insist that today’s ruling will make Sky Sports more available now to nearly ten million new customers.

However, the regulator stopped short of price cuts in Sky’s varied selection of movie channels, which has angered some of BSkyB’s closest competitors, like BT and Virgin Media.  If a move is agreed to cut the price of Sky Sports to the normal customer, Sky will be allowed to bring some of their pay-TV channels like Sky1 to Freeview, which had been agreed over two years ago, until Virgin Media’s buyout of ntl: telewest.  The broadcaster now has six weeks to outline a template contract to other pay TV providers, with OFCOM set to make a final announcement before the World Cup finals this summer.

Sky is the largest operator in the pay-TV market at the moment, with nearly ten million subscribers.  Under the new proposal, OFCOM has suggested the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 shall be made available for a price of £10.63 per subscriber, whereas the current subscriber would be paying £17.14, a reduction of over 10%.  This news comes after a three-year investigation, in which OFCOM has denied claims of foul play tactics and everywhere was done on a ‘fair and square basis.’ 

Virgin Media, BT and the normal or new subscriber are the main winners and Sky the losers, as they have already insisted of their intentions to appeal against the decision.  The bidding war involving pay-TV prices has certainly well and truly begun.