Digital TV Blog

DTT is the Winterval fairy

The last three months of 2007 saw a massive Christmas-tree shaped spike in sales of Freeview boxes. According to new sales figures, more than 3.8 million devices that can receive Freeview were sold in the last quarter of 2007, a significant portion of the total 9.7m figure for digital equipment and IDTV sets sold last year.

The run up to winterval success of Freeview compares with 167,000 new Sky subscribers for the last three months, taking its total number to 8.8 million, and 61,100 new sign-ups for Virgin Media which now boasts 4.8 million customers.

“Every year Freeview confounds our expectations,” says Freeview general manager Ilse Howling. “I think it is a tribute to the outstanding quality of the Freeview channels and the simplicity of how to get Freeview. You pay once and the rest of the offer is entirely free.”

The huge increase in sales has been attributed to high street retailers such as Currys no longer stocking analogue TV sets, and the corresponding rise of new models of flatscreen TVs with built-in tuners, and the proliferation of Freeview Playback-enabled set top boxes, and the beginning of the switchover in the UK.

Arch rivals kiss and make up. Again.

Seemingly minutes after the High Court ruled that Sky would have to downsize its Branson-bothering stake in ITV (and Virgin Media subsequently throwing a tantrum that anything short of a full sale wasn’t enough), the two broadband and digital TV rivals have announced that talks to return the ‘missing channels’ to the cable TV platform were back on track.

Acting Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett said “We’ve got continued interest in securing Sky basics back on our platform, that’s been evident since the close of the first quarter,” annoyingly adding that “It would be inappropriate for us to talk about where we’re at.”

In news which is apparently unrelated, it has also been revealed that Goldman Sachs has been appointed by Virgin to examine the sale of a portion of or part of Virgin Media Television division; it’s a bit hard to imagine that the news of talks with Sky is coincidental.

So whilst it’s too soon to say that Sky One and the gang will be back on cable screens, this is certainly great news for consumers.

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men…”

Samuel L Jackson, Hollywood’s Mr Cool, is set to become the new face of Virgin Media. The international icon, snake hunter, Jedi Master and scripture quoting hitman, steps into the shoes of fellow Tarantino alumnus Uma Thurman, who helped launch Virgin Media TV last year. A series of TV ads, recently filmed in the US on the set of Jackson’s latest movie, will air on UK screens next month, and will punt the range of channels, the on-demand library, and the 7-day catch-up feature available on the Virgin TV platform.

James Kydd, Virgin Media’s MD of brand and marketing who appears to be on first name terms gushed: “We are extremely excited about working with Samuel for our new ad campaign, as he has such massive appeal with young and old alike. He is the epitome of cool and is an unmistakeably powerful narrator who never fails to grab the attention of the viewer. We couldn’t think of anyone better to talk about the best TV service in the UK.”

The ads were shot by celebrated music video director and former Bathory drummer Jonas Akerlund, and reflect Virgin Media’s desire to emphasise its on-demand library along with high speed cable broadband as the aces up it’s sleeve.

Virgin Media’s On Demand service currently has over 4,000 hours of TV programming, including 500 movies, 1,000 music videos and popular series such as The Sopranos, Life on Mars and Grey’s Anatomy.