Sky – Page 4 – Digital-Lifestyles

Live Football And Cricket on Vodafone 3G Mobiles

Live Football And Cricket on Vodafone 3G Mobiles This weekend marks the start of Vodafone UK offering live coverage of international cricket and the Football League Playoffs from Sky Sports to their 3G customers.

They’re keen to point out that this is the first time in the UK, live football matches will be shown simultaneously live on mobile and on TV.

It’s not like this is going to be a trickle of content. There’s over 100 hours of coverage scheduled in the first month, with fifteen live football matches and three live Test matches. The cricket will continue with live coverage until the final Test against Pakistan in September.

Don’t think there’s going to an extra financial penalty to pay for this. The coverage will be available at no extra charge as a bonus service for subscribers to Sky Mobile TV’s News, Sports and Factual Pack.

Having said that the packages aren’t what you’d call cheap. Each Sky Mobile TV pack (detailed below) is and extra £5/month.

Sky has been actively putting its content over different platforms for quite some months now, following the announcement in January of Sky by Broadband which delivers some of Sky’s content to PC’s over a, you guess it, broadband connection.

Live Football And Cricket on Vodafone 3G Mobiles Bizarrely, Sky specify that the content is for Personal use only. Errr … it’s on a mobile phone Sky. It’s not like you’re going to get the throngs in the pub crowding around watching it on a tiny screen. That is until someone comes up with a huge magnifying glass that the phone sits behind.

The packs that are available are

News, Sport & Factual Pack: Sky News; CNN; Bloomberg; Sky Sports News; At The Races; Discovery Mobile Factual; National Geographic Channel; The History Channel.
Entertainment Pack: Sky One; Sky Movies; Living TV; Discovery Mobile Lifestyle; Nickelodeon; Paramount Comedy; Cartoon Network; Bravo; The Biography Channel and MTV Trax and MTV Snax.
Music Pack: MTV Trax, MTV Snax, The Box, Smash Hits, Kiss, Kerrang, B4, IMF and IMF 2.

Most of these don’t run live but are made up of dedicated ‘made for mobile’ channels, featuring regularly updated blocks of programming.

Sky, Disney HD and VoD Deal Signed

BSkyB, the UK satellite TV behemoth, is getting closer to Disney. They’ve just announced a comprehensive agreement which covers both HD (High Definition) content, which Sky have said will be available in 2006, and the distribution of Disney content will be available on Sky By Broadband, their recently released free content-to-PC’s. service.

It’s the largest distribution deal that Disney has arranged outside the US and also mentions the deal covers video-on-demand (VoD). The VoD section of the deal does cover Sky-By-Broadband, but could also cover their yet-to-be-detailed, EasyNet-delivered VoD service, which interestingly isn’t mentioned in the release.

News release follows …

SKY, DISNEY MEDIA NETWORKS AND THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS TEAM UP FOR MORE FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT, HDTV AND LEGAL BROADBAND MOVIE DOWNLOADS
Two New Channel Brands – Disney Cinemagic and ESPN Classic – To Launch As Part Of New Arrangement
Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney Become Available to Millions More Viewers As Part Of ‘Kids Mix’ Package of Basic Channels
Walt Disney Studio Movies Available From Sky HD and Sky by broadband
Jetix distribution on Sky digital extended
Disney Media Networks, The Walt Disney Studios and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) today announced plans to bring a wider choice of channels to Sky digital customers and to work together to exploit new opportunities in high definition television and broadband. The wide-ranging series of agreements expands the portfolio of great content from The Walt Disney Company available to Sky digital customers and extends the relationship between the two organisations.
Two new channel brands – Disney Cinemagic and ESPN Classic – will be made available to Sky digital customers for the first time, while Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney will be available to millions more Sky digital viewers as part of the Kids Mix package of basic channels. There will also be more ways to enjoy great films from The Walt Disney Studios as movies distributed by Buena Vista International Television join Sky’s legal broadband download service, Sky by broadband, and its forthcoming high definition television offering, Sky HD.
From 16th March, Disney Cinemagic, a new premium channel brand for families, will be the first place on television to see Disney’s latest animated films such as Pixar’s The Incredibles. Subscribers to Disney Cinemagic will also enjoy regular access to other great Disney favourites such as Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella. Disney Cinemagic will be available to Sky digital customers as a stand-alone premium channel or as a bonus channel for subscribers to Sky Movies 1 and 2.
From the same date, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney will be available to Sky digital customers as part of the ‘Kids Mix’ of basic channels. Disney Channel will be even more kid-focussed, complementing Cinemagic, and offering live action favourites like That’s So Raven, popular animation series and Disney Channel Original Movies, including High School Musical which is currently taking the States by storm. Playhouse Disney, a channel targeted to preschoolers, will premiere the new CG animated, learning-focussed series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, in May.
ESPN Classic, launching on 13th March as part of Sky’s ‘News and Events Mix’, will be the only sports channel in the UK devoted entirely to the greatest moments and legends of sport with a mix of all-time classic highlights, matches, movies, interviews, profiles and documentaries. ESPN Classic, part of ESPN Inc., the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company, will be available 24/7 on channel 442. Launch night alone will include Borg vs. McEnroe – the Great Wimbledon Rivalry, England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup Final victory over Australia and the 1984 European Cup Final between Liverpool and AS Roma.
Through a distribution agreement with Buena Vista International Television, Sky Movies will continue to offer a package of current and library Walt Disney Studio films,,with customers enjoying access to forthcoming Sky Movies premieres such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Sin City and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. In addition to the extension of existing pay-TV and pay-per-view rights, the new agreement gives Sky the ability to offer these titles in High Definition format and on a video-on-demand basis. These titles will also be available, for a set period, via the Sky by broadband service, which since last month has allowed dual Sky Movies subscribers to download films to their personal computers to enjoy when they want at no extra cost.
Under an amended distribution agreement, Sky digital customers will continue to enjoy access to Jetix and Jetix+1 for up to a further five years from the expiry date of the current deal in 2007. Jetix offers a dynamic programming mix of action, adventure and cheeky humour, both animated and live action, for kids with a core focus on 7-11 year olds, with programming highlights including Power Rangers, Jackie Chan Adventures, Totally Spies and A.T.O.M Alpha Teens on Machines.
In commenting on the announcement, Anne Sweeney, Co Chair of Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group, stated: “This agreement, which marks our largest distribution deal outside the US, is great news for viewers, who will now be able to access an even broader array of Disney content, either through their TVs or via broadband on personal computers. The strategic utilization of new technologies to meet consumer needs is of paramount importance to the growth of the Disney Media Networks Group, and we look forward to this deal enhancing an already rich association with Sky, and our viewers in the UK and Ireland.”
Richard Freudenstein, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “These agreements show the range and quality of Disney content. Working with outstanding brands like Disney and ESPN allows us to offer great entertainment for every family member and to break new ground in multi-platform content distribution. With today’s announcement, we are creating another compelling reason for families to join Sky digital and demonstrating again the strengths in content and innovation that position Sky well for sustained growth.”
George Bodenheimer, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks and President, ESPN, Inc and ABC Sports, said: “ESPN has built up a passionate bond with sports fans and we are very excited to extend this with the launch of ESPN Classic in the UK on the Sky platform. We are confident that ESPN Classic, a dedicated new sports channel designed specifically for the UK market, will capture the attention of the UK sports fan as it has in over 40 countries across Europe.”

BSkyB Moves Execs, To Enter ‘Adjacent Areas Of Business’

BSkyB Moves Execs, To Enter Adjacent Areas Of Business Sky has announced three of its top Exec will be altering roles, we suspect, as they prepare to become more than just a satellite TV company.

Using its best management speak, the UK Satellite-overlord is “aligning its organisational structure to support sustained growth towards its target of 10 million direct-to-home customers in 2010.”

The favoured three will be stepping it up a gear, and far beyond having the key for the executive toilet, we suspect they’ll be getting a whole suite of bathroom facilities.

Dawn Airey, who has been Managing Director of Sky Networks since 2003, becomes Managing Director, Channels and Services with overall responsibility for Sky’s multi-platform content strategy. The existing Sky Networks structure will be joined in the Channels and Services group by an enlarged interactive team that brings together all of Sky’s new media content on interactive TV, online and mobile platforms. She’ll assume additional responsibility for Sky’s joint ventures, wholesale distribution arrangements with cable companies and commercial relationships with third-party channels on the satellite platform.
Mike Darcey, who joined Sky in 1998 and is currently Group Strategy Director, becomes Group Commercial and Strategy Director with extended responsibility for a new group that combines Sky’s Strategy, Future Technology, R&D and Business Development teams. In addition, he’ll take on a further responsibility to manage and develop Sky’s major commercial relationships in support of the company’s strategic goals
Jon Florsheim, who joined Sky in 1994, becomes Managing Director, Customer Group in addition to his existing title of Chief Marketing Officer. The Customer Group brings together all of Sky’s expertise in sales, marketing and customer operations to create a seamless brand, product and service experience for customers. This team will lead the continued development and implementation of Sky’s multi-product strategy, including the launch of the company’s broadband offering in the second half of calendar 2006.

BSkyB Moves Execs, To Enter Adjacent Areas Of Business We think Mike Darcey sounds like he’s going to have the most fun, and certainly the most toys to play with.

James Murdoch, Sky’s Chief Executive, touches on where BSkyB is planning on going, as they “exploit content on multiple platforms and expand into adjacent areas of business.”

With the strength of BSkyB’s relationships with their customers, fear will be struck into the heart of many execs in many industries by the words “adjacent areas of business.”

ZipTV: UK iTV Pioneer Falters

ZipTV: UK iTV Pioneer Falters A great shame to hear that ZipTV has had to enter receivership.

ZipTV launched in July 2004 with high ideals. Their original aim was to take on the mighty power of Sky and create an interactive advertising channel running in parallel to Sky TV’s programming.

ZipTV: UK iTV Pioneer Falters They way it worked was, as the punters were watching ‘normal’ TV and an advert from one of ZipTV’s clients was shown, a press of the Red button on the remote control (the UK standard for interaction), would take the punter away from the ‘normal’ TV show, to a dedicated TV channel. This gave the advertiser the opportunity to show an 8 minute video advert, but just pay for a 30-second spot-ad to get them there.

A very neat idea, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Taking on Sky, especially their income-generating advertising is … well, brave to say the least. If you were contemplating it, it’s the sort of thing you check with your lawyer, bank manager and then frankly, your psychiatrist before doing. We’re not sure if ZipTV did any of these.

ZipTV: UK iTV Pioneer Falters You see Sky, and it’s very competent employees and owner, Rupert Murdoch don’t muck around. If they see some bright young things coming along with a super wheeze they will drain their income – it will get their attention – and not in a good, cuddly way.

In advance of launching, ZipTV gathered some of the biggest advertisers around, including Honda, BT and Unilever, but some were lots prior to their launch.

Not surprisingly Andrew Howells, founder and joint managing partner at Zip TV, said, “Having a genuine alternative to Sky is a necessity. There is only room for one alternative and it needs to be an independent one.”

Sky Guide To Offer Personalised TV Listings (News release)

Sky is giving millions of customers the chance to create their own personalised on-screen TV listings with the launch today of important improvements to its electronic programme guide, Sky Guide. The upgrade programme, the most significant since the launch of Sky digital in 1998, is intended to make it even easier for viewers to navigate the 500 plus channels now available on digital satellite.

Sky Guide provides TV listings information for all of the TV channels available on digital satellite for the full week ahead. Following the enhancements, Sky digital customers will be able to create their own personalised grid of their favourite 50 channels for the first time. When a viewer presses the blue key on the Sky remote from within the “TV Guide” section of Sky Guide they will be able to see full seven-day TV listings for all of their chosen channels at a glance.

The Sky Guide upgrade will be rolled out automatically to more than eight million Sky customers from today and will take up to the end of February to complete. Additional features include:

MORE GENRES: The 500 plus channels available on digital satellite will be categorised into 15 programming genres, instead of the existing seven*, making it even easier for viewers to find their way around Sky Guide. For example, radio channels, documentary channels and shopping channels will each have their own dedicated categories for the first time.
CHANNEL NUMBERS: Most channel numbers will change on February 28 to reflect the introduction of the new genre categories. All Radio channel numbers will also consist of a four-digit number beginning with ‘0’ to accommodate the increased demand for digital radio services on the satellite platform. So, for example, BBC Radio 1 will be found at 0101 and Virgin Radio at 0107 (full channel line up available upon request).

A marketing campaign will inform customers about the changes and help them to get the best out of the new features.

Brian Sullivan, Sky’s Director of Customer Products and Services, said:

“Sky has a huge choice of programmes that match the individual interests of millions of viewers. With this upgrade, we’re taking personalised choice even further by giving customers the chance to tailor the Sky Guide to suit their own preferences.”

Sky

Sky Broadband UK Delivery, With Microsoft Surprise

Microsoft and Sky get it together in UK homes Interestingly, after Sky made a decision to use a non-Microsoft solution for its HD TV service in the UK, Bill Gates has revealed a deal has been done between BSkyB and Microsoft that will enable Sky’s UK subscribers to access a “Video on Demand” service using Microsoft Media Centre”.

The agreement, which will allow Sky content to be made available to subscribers over a broadband connection, is likely to worry the major UK telco, BT, who is also planning a UK video on demand service for 2006.

Microsoft and Sky get it together in UK homes Mr Gates, speaking in the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, evangelised the “arrival of the much-trailed ‘digital lifestyle'” (which of course, we here at Digital Lifestyles just loved when Bill started using it at last years CES).

The deal dovetails nicely into Sky’s acquisition of the Easynet ISP and creates a powerful alliance between a content focused Sky and the technology titan Microsoft.

Sky’s asked us to drop by next Tuesday to run through a demonstration of the product and give an outline of where they’re going with it. Expect more details.

Pressure Builds – No Christmas Cheer For BT

BT has been hit by two further blows, bringing into stark relief the height of the mountain it must climb to achieve its TV ambitions. Secondarily, drawing into sharp focus the changing landscape for domestic phone calling, as the competition begins to consolidate.

The bad news for the BT TV proposition, is that BSkyb has got its 8th millionth customer. These customers are, by and large, the sort of customer BT badly needs for its triple play TV offering to be a success. They’re high-delivering ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) viewers that will delight the beleaguered BT finances.

Sky’s achievement of the 8 million target is also likely to be a blow to the ambitious NTL. Expect little let up from Sky as it battles to reach the 10 million mark by 2010 and continues to push its Sky+ and multi-room offerings.

As competition hots-up, no pre-Christmas cheer for BT Separately, a consolidating Carphone Warehouse has been on the acquisition trail and agreed the purchase of Tele2’s UK and Ireland operations, and separately, Onetel.

The deal with Tele2, the Swedish telecoms company, at a price of £8.5 million plus the £2 million cost of a planned restructure, will add around 188,000 customers in the UK and a further 36,000 in Ireland to Carphone Warehouse.

The deal appears to makes sense for Carphone Warehouse, and they expect the transaction to add to their earnings in the current financial year. They intend to migrate the purchased companies customers onto its own network, under the TalkTalk brand.

As competition hots-up, no pre-Christmas cheer for BT The purchase of Onetel from Centrica for £132 million includes £37.1 million, while will be delivered if Centrica deliver a targeted number of customers in the next three years via its British Gas operations. The Carphone Warehouse will also pay Centrica an additional £22.2 million if higher sign-up targets are met.

Onetel’s residential customer portfolio is made up of 1.1 million Carrier Pre-Select (CPS), 250,000 indirect access, 60,000 broadband, 40,000 mobile. There are also 50,000 CPS business customers. Carphone Warehouse are upbeat about this purchase too, saying the acquisition will “increase current year pre-tax profits by approximately £4m, and next year’s pre-tax profits by approximately £20m.”

Here at Digital Lifestyles, we expect competition to be even fiercer in 2006 as both BSkyb and the Telcos battle to capture high spending subscribers.

Hauppauge Nova-s PC Card Offers Freesat TV Via Sky

Hauppauge WinTV Nova-s PC Card Offers Freesat TV Hauppauge Digital have whipped out a new add-on card to convert a boring old PC into a multimedia-tastic satellite TV receiver.

Their new WinTV Nova-s card receives free satellite channels (the -s is for satellite), and will work with Sky’s Freesat, that give free access to the unencrypted channels on Sky, which are currently all of the BBC offering and soon ITV (hopefully). Sky normally charge you £150 for the privilege.

Once they’ve shelled out for the £59.99 (~$103, ~€87) decoding device, punters won’t need a viewing card or subscription fees to enjoy free satellite transmissions on their desktop.

The card is aimed at consumers who already have a satellite dish stuck on their roof/wall, with Hauppauge suggesting that the WinTV Nova-s would be ideal for a PC “in the kitchen, study or bedroom as an additional digital TV.”

Owners can watch full screen satellite TV on their desktop, or have a smaller window open whilst trying to work on something else (yeah, right: who’s going to carry on working on their VAT return when there’s some top notch footie onscreen?!)

The Nova-s is compatible with Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition, and also offers the option to record shows to the PC’s hard disk. It will also work with all-round media handlers like ShowShifter.

At the moment, the Hauppauge’s WinTV Nova-s can receive all the BBC TV channels (including One, Two, Three, Four, CBBC, Cbeebies and BBC News24 and Radios 1 to 7.)

ITV currently encrypts, or scrambles, its satellite transmissions using the service provided by Sky, but will soon be following BBC’s lead and broadcasting its channels without encryption, so they can be viewed any satellite receiver.

This means that ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and the ever-fascinating Men&Motors will become available soon, with more channels to be added in 2006 when Freesat officially launches.

Freesat will be the satellite equivalent of Freeview,” said Yehia Oweiss, Managing Director of Hauppauge Digital. “Already broadcasting BBC, the service will be available to all UK households and bring free digital TV to the 25 per cent who are outside Freeview’s area. Consumers can buy our Freesat tuner now and enjoy many digital channels now, with more being added all the time.”

The WinTV Nova-s looks reasonably future proofed too, offering HDTV (High Definition TV) compatibility, with HDTV broadcasts expected to be delivered by satellite in 2006/7

Freesat’s EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) will be made available on the Hauppauge card, but for now the information can be downloaded through the Internet.

The Hauppauge WinTV Nova-s also provides a video input socket for slapping in a camcorder and digitising the content into MPEG format for editing and burning to DVD.

Hauppauge
Showshifter

Too Easy(net) For Sky?

Too Easynet Yesterday, Sky’s takeover of Easynet was finalised and it looks to many that, despite paying a premium on the share price, they’ve have quite a bargain on their hands.

Easynet is not a ‘fly-by-night’ Internet start up but a profitable business having traded for over 10 years in it own right, it has equipment located at over 250 of BT’s exchanges and has earned its technological spurs with deliveries of 22Mb using its ADSL2+ network.

The broadband addition should future proof Sky against TV being broadcast to the home by ‘Wi-Fi’, and cable or fibre, expect future generations of receivers to start evolving into the home media hub with increased storage and the sophisticated Digital Right Management (DRM) that major film studios demand. Easynet will also offer an alternative to satellite delivery to customers who are prohibited from having a dish, or live in a built up urban area, where there can be no line-of-sight.

Too Easynet Although reports that broadband is the latest media battleground have highlighted the moves by the UK telcos, the ultimate prize is the fabled home digital information gateway. The opportunities that this acquisition enables go beyond a mere triple play option (Inernet, TV & Telephone), allowing Sky to, begin by become the overriding aggregator of TV content and, in time, become the preferred digital gatekeeper for many UK homes.

The prize? Being the ability to take a small fee for each of the numerous transactions that will take place.

Sky will be competing initially with the telco’s and ultimately Microsoft. Sky’s choice of MPEG4 H264 for future HD TV delivery pits it against Microsoft and their WMV HD. The two new encoding technologies offer similar advantages and share characteristics but, by and large, broadcasters remain wary of becoming locked into a Microsoft solution and prefer, historically the flexibility of more open standards.

Eyes are peeled to see if Sky Italia and other associated ‘News’ companies look to replicate this type of broadband acquisition.

BBC ‘FreeSat’, Looking Even Less Likely

BBC 'FreeSat', Looking Even Less Likely As reported here at the beginning of the week there seems to be a real danger of the BBC’s non-subscription card free alternative to Sky’s Freesat offering falling at the first fence.

While the BBC cosies up to Sky to help make everyone covet a shiny new High Definition display and the services that go with it, it’s reported in Broadcast that the companies who will manufacture the receivers have no specification to work too.

If a specification isn’t nailed down in the next few months, it’ll be 2007 before the boxes hit the shops. By then there could be considerable consumer resistance, with buyers prefering to wait to see what happens with any new high-quality domestic standard, and the makers of the boxes moving to newer higher tech, bigger margin products.

In short, there’s a danger that the boat may be missed.

BBC 'FreeSat', Looking Even Less Likely A raft of HD services across Europe is likely to eat up scarce capacity on the high-power satellites that beam the programmes down to earth, making any system that duplicates services across platforms more expensive.

Add to all of the above the challenge of creating a clear marketing and installation message, and I can see that there could well be people in the BBC who would rather that their careers didn’t get blighted by a potential fiasco.

The BBC could be minded too by OFCOM’s view that the burdens of switching to digital delivery should not fall disproportionately on the dear old ‘beeb’. Unless priorities change, James Murdoch can relax on the BSkyb extra terrestrial UK monopoly for a bit longer.

But will the public gain too?