Granada Media PLC
17 October 2000
ONdigital nets 896,000 customers
Subscribers more than double in 12 months
* ONdigital has 896,000 subscribers signed up as at 16
October 2000
* 20,000 ONnet customers signed up in first two weeks
since launch
* 17 more brands join the ONnet portal
* Whitbread, Punch, Scottish and Newcastle and Regency
Inns first chains to sign up for ONleisure
commercial service
* ONdigital launches enhanced EPG
* Conditional access modules for idTVs now fully
available
* Two Way TV deal adds new interactive games
* Orange signed up as first netlinked advertisers
* MGM studio deal brings more top movies for ONrequest
* Transmitter upgrades in London area add 1 million
households to full coverage; 2 million more to come
in NW and SW England by early 2001
ONdigital, the world-leading interactive digital TV
service, today announced that it has 896,000 customers
signed up as at 16 October 2000. The figure for the
quarter ended 30 September 2000 was 878,000, more than
double the figure of 411,000 at the same period in 1999.
In the first two weeks after launch, ONnet, ONdigital's
full Internet service, signed up 20,000 customers.
ONdigital Chief Executive, Stuart Prebble, says:
'In less than two years we have built a business with
close to a million customers, and we are on track to meet
the very ambitious targets we set ourselves two years
ago. We've more than doubled our subscriber numbers in
the last year and we believe we are in good shape to
continue strong growth in the all-important last quarter
of 2000.'
'ONnet, our new service that provides full internet
access via the television, has launched successfully and
is already proving popular with existing and new
subscribers. ONnet puts ONdigital clearly ahead of the
competition in the range and quality of the interactive
services we provide to our subscribers'
ONnet launched on 18 September. In the first two weeks
of use users made more than 12 million advertisement
impressions. A further 17 brands have joined the portal,
including beeb.com brands, Radio Times and property
centre. Many other content negotiations are underway and
the ONnet portal will continue to expand significantly
throughout the coming months.
ONnet customers not only benefit from easy access to
portal partner sites but can surf the Web freely, not
being confined in the walled garden offered by some other
digital TV services.
ONrequest, our PPV joint-venture with SDN, has now added
MGM to its roster of studios (alongside Universal,
Paramount and Fox). This will mean films like The World
is not Enough and The Thomas Crown Affair (both starring
Pierce Brosnan) on ONrequest this autumn. ONrequest will
announce further entertainment and sports PPV events in
coming weeks.
Orange is to be the first advertiser in the UK to use
netlink, the ONdigital system that allows viewers to
click straight from a TV broadcast to an Internet site.
The first interactive Orange advertisement will be
broadcast during a commercial break in a UEFA Champions
League match on Tuesday 21 November.
This week ONdigital launches a new and comprehensive
electronic programme guide (EPG) service. ONview, on
channel 20, will allow all DTT viewers to see what
programmes are on every DTT channel for the whole day,
and to click straight through to any channel they choose.
It will complement ONdigital's existing Now and Next
service, which allows viewers to see what programmes are
on the channel they are watching and on every other
channel while still watching the programme.
A whole new range of games will be arriving on channel 45
- which will be renamed Two Way TV - from January 2001.
The new games will include a selection of Two Way TV's
most popular puzzle and quiz games such as the BBC's A
Question Of Sport, Mastermind, and Antiques Roadshow,
Channel 4's Crystal Maze and ITV's Comedy Awards.
ONleisure, ONdigital's new commercial arm has already
signed up the Whitbread, Punch, Scottish and Newcastle
and Regency Inns chains for its new commercial service.
The service offers ONsport 1 and ONsport2, with their
exclusive UEFA Champions League coverage and MTV, to pubs
and bars.
This Christmas there will be at least 25 models of idTVs
in the stores. The Conditional Access Modules needed to
connect some of these TVs to the ONdigital service are
fully available, and now that idTVs come with 6 ONdigital
primary channels preloaded, sales are predicted to be
higher than last year.
We continue to improve the coverage of the ONdigital
service. Progress in the London area at the Crystal
Palace group of transmitters means that around one
million more households can now get full coverage of
Digital Terrestrial TV. Similar work is being undertaken
in the North West and South West, as a result of which a
further two million homes will come into full coverage at
the end of 2000 or shortly afterwards.
Notes to editors
1. Of the 878,000 total at the end of September 2000,
32,000 have signed contracts but are yet to activate
their smartcards or have been installed without
subscriptions, mainly in dealers, for demonstration
purposes.
For media information contact
Andrew Marre 020 7819 8227
For analysts' information contact
David Cameron 020 7663 6363
Peter Coleridge 020 7451 3000 |
