Sky's hybrid delivery or move to Internet?

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BSkyB is adding a range of new features to its pay-TV service, a top executive said, and it may eventually move to a hybrid platform of satellite and broadband delivery.

Analysts have noted that BSkyB rents rather than owns satellite capacity, so it could move towards Internet distribution over time. Sky is the country's largest pay-TV company, but it is facing fierce competition from Freeview, resurgent cable rivals, and the looming threat of TV over the Internet from the likes of BT Group.

"New Ethernet connections will allow us to deliver services such as VOD (video on demand) over a broadband pipe as well as over satellite," Chief Operating Officer Richard Freudenstein said at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge.

"Over time we'll have a hybrid model, satellite augmented by broadband," a BSkyB spokesman said on Friday.

Freudenstein did not set a date for the new VOD services, but the newest Sky+ boxes have extra memory that is currently not used, suggesting that some of the hardware requirements are already in place.

Sky is also preparing the roll-out of a VOD service that would let subscribers watch movies and sports on their computers.

Freudenstein said that Sky also planned to broadcast live to mobile phones, and to allow Sky+ users to programme their set-top boxes from mobile phones.

He declined to say whether the company would eventually give away free Sky+ boxes to subscribers, saying only that it had "no intention, no need" to do so right now.

Source: Reuters

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