BSkyB boxes are being subsudized. Still little interest in the UK..........................................
inside-cable.co.uk
UK's DIGITAL LAUNCH - HEAVY SUBSIDIES AVAILABLE
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Digital TV launched in the UK on October 1st with the first satellite decoders sold in a specially opened Oxford Street store just after midnight. Terrestrial digital launches in November and cable in the spring of 1999.
BSkyB plans to sell at least 200,000 digital TV systems by the end of the Christmas season, backed by a 60 million pound marketing campaign in the press, on TV and with prominent poster ads.
Sky Digital customers can buy their boxes in over 5000 shops for 199.99 (or 159.99 if they are an existing Sky subscriber). An engineer will call within three working days to install the new dish, smaller than the analogue dish, and set up the system.
Installation is free if the purchaser subscribes to a Sky Digital channel package (starting at 6.99 a month) and the price of the settop box is conditional, in the purchase contract, on the box being connected to a telephone line. Without a telephone connection the cost increases by 167 pounds, and without a subscription installation costs 99.99. The heavy subsidies are costing BSkyB and BIB (the interactive service provider) a substantial investment.
The first settop boxes are from Pace. Other manufacturers will be supplying boxes in the coming weeks. The costs of developing digital TV technology helped push one manufacturer, Amstrad, into the red this year.
Our visit to three large stores at the weekend, three days after launch, revealed a distinct absence of interest in Sky Digital. It is to be hoped for their sake that interest picks up. However it is difficult to get away from the impression that the main selling propositions are more channels and better quality signals. The British public has always been hesitant about more TV channels, and 'better quality signals' is a message which has rarely been able to shift customer behaviour quickly.
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