Digital TV Blog

Well, sort of.

This just in from the guys at Setanta Sports - the following pre-season friendlies and qualifiers have been announced, including the dates for the Vodacom Challenge mini-tournament games between title holders Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Cheifs and Manchester United. Please note that one of the dates is tob be confirmed, and that all fixtures are, naturally, subject to change.

Sat 12/7 Tranmere v Liverpool 15:00 LFC TV

Thu 17/7 EB / Streymur v Man City (Faroe Islands) UEFA Cup 19:00 Setanta Sports 1

Fri 18/7 Southampton v Celtic 19:45 Celtic TV

Sat 19/7 Kaizer Chiefs v Man United 14:30 Setanta Sports 1

Sat 19/7 Barnet v Arsenal 15:00 Arsenal TV

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Anything Toucan do…

Broadband ISP, telco and IPTV supplier Tiscali are all set to add another ace to their already impressive hand – mobile phone services. After the acquisition of ISP Toucan last summer, Tiscali also inherited the Toucan mobile service, which piggybacks on the T-Mobile network.

This should certainly give the competition something to think about, especially Virgin Media, who have been able to comfortably claim the title of the UK’s sole quad play provider. BT, which currently leads the UK broadband market and Sky, undoubtedly keen to built on the success of See Speak Surf in 2008, should also have pause for thought. Mobile-and-broadband suppliers Orange and O2 are both thought to be rolling out IPTV in the UK this year – news of Tiscali moving in on their home turf cant be welcome.

Tiscali are thought to be planning on launching the mobile phone service in the UK in the last quarter of 2008 – Tiscali chief executive Mary Turner was quoted in The Telegraph saying: “The assessment is not if, it is who and when. The business case has already been approved by the board.”

Mobile networks get on board the broadband TV wagon

2008 looks set to be the year of IPTV, with BT Vision soldiering ahead with the promise of interactive New Media 2 content, and Tiscali aiming to add over 200,000 customers to its IPTV service in the UK and across Europe.

Leading mobile and broadband providers Orange and O2 are also set to follow suit, with both parties preparing to launch IPTV operations in the UK.

Orange have a bit of a head start on O2, having already conducted trials of their service among customers in Leeds and London, and signed content provision deals with ABC and Disney.

O2 already has deals with Warner Bros, HBO and Paramount for its TV service in the Czech Republic, which it hopes to bring to the UK in 2008 as its broadband footprint grows. Tiscali aim to expand the availability of their IPTV service by investing more in BT Openreach; the wholesale plan that allows other ISPs to ‘buy’ BT lines by installing equipment in phone exchanges.

Broadband market leaders BT are thought to be launching more broadband bundles for their TV service to make BT Vision a more attractive prospect. BT’s main competitor in the fixed-line/broadband market is Virgin Media – Sky Broadband, as part of the See Speak Surf bundle, has had a considerable impact on the market, connecting customers at a rate which must have given its rivals more than a few sleepless nights.

Rival broadcasters united against provisional HD

Don’t hold your breath: Sky and Virgin haven’t done a sudden volte-face and arranged a price for the missing channels – they just both happen to agree on something, for once.

With regard to Ofcom and the government setting aside a percentage of the UK broadcast spectrum so that the five terrestrial channels (BBC One and Two, ITV1, Channel 4 and five) can broadcast content resplendent in shiny happy HD post-switchover, the two CEOs of Sky and Virgin both give a resolute thumbs down.

Arguing that HD is the medium, and not the message, Virgin Media’s Malcolm Wall said that “HD is not a public service issue, but a value add and as such people will pay for it.”

Sky boss James Murdoch echoed this sentiment with “You have people paying for this, and to suddenly say it has crossed the threshold of public necessity is preposterous.”

This is not unexpected, after Sky’s Martin Le Jeune had branded the HD for All lobby group ‘Silly’ in the past, although if terrestrial channels were given HD airspace, customers who got hooked on HD on Freeview might be tempted to migrate to a pay TV platform where HD is in abundance, so it might work in favour of the HD for All naysayers.

HD was first introduced to the UK TV market by Sky, and Virgin followed suit with the popular V+ service on its launch this year. Both companies have invested a lot into bringing HD to British screens and will not want to see the value of their services diluted by what is essentially a free version of premium product.

Last week, it was announced that Ofcom had green-lighted the BBC’s proposal to launch a separate HD channel for broadcasting on all digital TV platforms, with the proviso that they compress the size of the data of transmissions to make the programmes more bandwidth-friendly for customers wanting to make use of IPTV.

If Auntie successfully goes ahead with its pilot HD channel, it may be only a matter of time before the rest of the Beeb retinue get the HD overhaul and the others follow suit – PSB dictates that all state-sponsored content must be available to all licence payers, i.e. anyone wot owns a telly. If this happens – which, if it does, won’t be for years to come - then Sky and Virgin will have to up their game and lower prices and/or improve the quality of their services, which may be bad news for their budgets, but good news for customers.

Tiscali aim to increase their Christmas presence

Tiscali, who have over 1 million broadband customers in the UK are to fully launch the Homechoice IPTV service to cover most of the UK. The TV package will feature Sky channels not currently available on the Virgin Media platform, along with an option to add content provided by Sky Sports for an additional monthly fee.

At the present the service only has around 50,000 customers, those which were part of the Homechoice footprint when the IPTV platform was bought by Tiscali last year. Tiscali hope to be able to service over 10 million homes by “Christmas 2007″ to offer “the best value Triple Play service in the UK for those who don’t want to pay for expensive premium TV, but do want more than Freeview.”

We’ve been keeping a close eye on Tiscali’s TV platform since the purchase was announced last year – Homechoice was a success in its trial areas and it will be interesting to see how this new entry into the wider market will shake things up.

BT Vision has seen customers sign up since the beginning of this year’s Premiership season, combined with the option of live football from Setanta Sports, with whom Tiscali are still in negotiations.

It is expected that Tiscali TV will be on offer as part of their broadband and phone packages, currently priced at £19.99 and £24.99 a month.