NOW TV

I've found the colour on the BBC 25fps content such as The Office, Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' and Outnumbered looking washed out using the smart box with the Netflix app. The US 30/60fps content despite the motion judder is fine.

Interesting speculation that NOWTV will change post Comcast. The likelihood of Comcast maintaining two OTT brands (Hulu being the other) being thought unlikely. A hybrid NOW/Hulu with stacked content, not wholly Sky broadcast sourced, is thought possible. What brand survives would be interesting.

(Business Insider and other sources)

How would this work with Disney owning the lion's share of Hulu?

1. Break up Existing Hulu
Disney concentrating their content on their own brand service ...
Hulu retains Comcast content and others ....

2. Then fold Hulu remainder into NowTV possibly rebranding it in the process.

Isn't Hulu though just a streaming service rather than a box - it's a service which would fit neatly as part of Now TV.

I doubt Comcast will mess too much with Now TV - think it's been a key growth area for Sky lately.

Hulu is a strong brand in the US, so I'd be surprised if that were ditched. The rights agreements around content on Hulu in the US mean it's unlikely we'll get the same service in Europe any time soon - but I could see them rebranding NowTV to Hulu if they think the NowTV brand isn't hugely valuable in consumer loyalty and brand awareness terms?

Longer term it will be interesting to see how Sky's OTT and IPTV offerings develop. We still haven't seen the IPTV 'dishless Sky' launch yet.

That could be why 1080p hasn't launched on NOW TV yet as both would certainly use a similar set-up with regards to streaming at that resolution.

Not sure. I'd thought Dishless-Sky was more likely to be multicast UDP IPTV (maybe even CBR) and not delivered over the internet, just via broadband, than an internet-delivered HLS or DASH-based TCP/http OTT service - so pretty different.

I'd expect 'Dishless-Sky' to be 1080i too (like BTTV's IPTV multicast service - and most of those already running in Europe that aren't 720p50) - not 1080p unless something odd happens.

In broadcast 1080p is a bit of a non-issue - as very few, if any, channel Playout areas are 1080p-based. In the UK we're based around 576i, 1080i and 2160p, but no 1080p is really used. Similarly the DPP AS11 TX masters for UK shows will be 1080i (sure they may contain 1080p25 content, but that will be delivered 1080i25 wrapped, and all UK HD Playout areas are likely to be 1080i based)

There would be no real need to convert an IPTV service from 1080i to 1080p - that's really only an issue for OTT services that can't expect deinterlacing functionality on their destinations (phones, tablets, PCs etc.)

Not in the UK, but it has launched in Austria.

I'd imagine a dishless Sky service to work pretty much like BT's, where you'll have to take Sky Broadband in order to use the service. In effect it'll become cable television, which Anyone who's used an IPTV service (and I mean the fly by night suppliers you pay for, rather than dodgy KODI add-ons) will have experienced the frustration you get once there's a big footy match or a major PPV fight.

Even NOW TV had major issues during football matches (and Game of Thrones) in the early days. I suspect this time round they'll want to iron out any issues before launching such a service which is premium this time round.

With the HD introduction, I have suspicions that NOWTV's linear programming will be going onto BT Wholesale's multicast network replacing the current unicast access, and that's why the almost twelve month timeframe was indicated, so that a secure subnet within that can be built out. This will release the unicast servers for box set and catch-up improvements. It'll also enable the BTTV product to piggyback on the multicast source too.