BT Vision

We've not talked too much about this here, but compared to Top Up TV Anytime it looks like it'll be a much better On Demand service - though full details are still not available.


If you don't know, BT Vision is a service which will "soft-launch" at the end of the year before a major campaign next year.

The set-top box will not only receive the standard Freeview line up of channels (through your aerial), but will also be enabled with Broadband with a host of movies, music videos and programming available On-Demand. It's also a PVR that can store upto 80 hours of programming.


It's the On Demand thing that interests me. The cable service looks pretty decent to those of us well outside cable areas, especially with the addition of 4oD - but so far I've seen nothing that suggests C4 have signed a deal with BT.

BBC Worldwide will provide content, but whether that'll include current BBC programming (for free) is also unclear - though there is the mention of a 7-day catch up service.


It's cost though that is crucial here - and it will all depend on how much you use BT I guess. RadioandTelly report the box will be less than £100 and the service will only be available to BT Broadband customers.

There is no subscription - you just pay for downloaded content, and as I said before it all depends on what you get for free in my case at least.


There is little detail about the actual delivery of the service on the BT Vision homepage - http://www.bt.com/btvision - there seems to be more info at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/btvision.html


So has anyone heard anymore about it?

So BT Vision had it's "soft launch" today, though has got quite a bit of coverage for it, especially since it's announced it'll carry Setanta Sports from next year with live Premiership football.

Not sure if this will be broadcast to the box via a broadband stream, or whether it'll be available from the Set Top Box in the same way it's being made available via Top Up TV (i.e. an encrypted channel).


Some news on the costs then:

The "V-Box" is free*, but you pay £30 for connection and £60 for installation.




There is no compulsory subscription other than your broadband charges, with content available on a month by month subscription basis or pay per view.

Pay per view prices begin at 29p for music videos, 49p for kids shows, 79p for TV shows and £1.99 for films.

Monthly subscription packages are £6 for "TV Shows", £9 for "TV Show and TV Replay", £6 for "Kids shows" and £6 for music videos, or all four packages for £14.

TV Replay currently only offers C4 programming though from the last eight days.



For me personally it's not worth it at the moment and is better to see how things pan out (and I'm not on BT Broadband at the moment anyhow).

I think also they need to tempt you with "free" content (i.e. TV Replay, but with more channels), and certainly if they begin offering a TV+Phone+Broadband service for a reasonable monthly fee (around £30 like cable), it would be well worth considering.


Top Up TV Anytime boxes are now being sent out and the service going live, while C4's online on-demand service 4oD launches on Wednesday.


More info: http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2105

Interesting developments of course here, but I have to say BT Vision has fallen way short of what I was hoping and expecting for.

On demand may well be the future of broadcast TV - but that's not yet confirmed. Even if people with PVRs do go through schedules picking out things to record which they won't watch for days or weeks, I'd imagine that the average user needs to have access to 'proper' (i.e. live, scheduled) TV channels in order to feel that they have a proper TV service.

The startup costs are questionable too - consumers really are now beyond the point of swalling trumped up 'connection' fees and quite what does 'installation' involve? Surely the beauty of a TV service delivered through ADSL is that you allready have a place to plug it into the wall and so would only ever require 'installation' if you don't allready have a serviceable phone socket.

Packaging it as a 'buy it today, take it home today, watch it today' service which doesn't require installation is a trump card which, (apart from Top Up TV), has been more or less unclaimed since the days of ITV Digital. It's also just about the only thing which Sky and the cable companies will never be able to compete with - yet BT appear to have thrown it away.

When hearing of BT's TV through ADSL offering, I was anticipating that it would be like Home Choice - a proper pay TV service carrying proper broadcast pay TV channels which happens to be delivered through ADSL. They could still have integrated a DTT tuner and only carried channels which weren't on Freeview in the subscription in order to provide the greatest number of channels for the least demand on the connection.

Delivering TV through ADSL could, if properly directed, end up being the mass cable TV rollout which they UK never had. BT is just about the only company able to pull this off on a national scale at the moment, they could have provided Sky with it's only serious competition in almost 5 years and could have ended up securing future business for BT in what are uncertain times for them.

As it is, I'm not really expecting this to take off, the UK consumer market is not yet sufficiently comfortable with TV on demand to prefer paying for on demand content on a per item basis rather than simply paying a monthly subscription for a package of scheduled channels. Furthermore, they've apparently decided to make it a sevice requiring engineer installation when there is no practical reason not to make it a retail product available on the high street. These two points I feel are going to seriously hamper the popularity of the service.

Vision might end up being of interest to a niche market, but I don't see it as being a mass choice for watching TV - and cruicially, Sky will continue to have no effective competition outside of cabled areas.

Maggie Thatcher put a stop to that though, preventing BT from entering the broadcasting market.

The comparison with Homechoice is the obvious one (are the Freeview channels with that delivered via ADSL or through a Freeview tuner). I believe Tiscali now own Homechoice, so perhaps that may emerge on a wider basis.

As for BT Vision - I think alot of what you say will probably come in time which is why it's better to see how things pan out and let other people test the service first!

I don't see a full channel line up being available soon, but perhaps premium services like Sky Sports. I think it's more likely to be occassional additional streams though, with for example ITV streaming an interactive service during the World Cup (without sacrificing any Freeview bandwidth).


A few core questions spring to mind -

Firstly, will we see BT buy out the ultimately doomed Top Up TV Anytime?

Secondly, will BT Vision make the service available via other broadband providers, or other ISPs launch their own similar service?

And finally, Sky is trailing behind in the On-Demand market, so will they be offering something similar soon with Sky Broadband?

This could end up becoming an arguable point in the future. The traditional definitions of 'broadcasting' and 'communications' are fast becoming blurred as the two merge.


All channels on Homechoice come through the ADSL link; they don't carry The Hits, TMF, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Three, or several of the radio stations. If they were using a DTT tuner to deliver some of their channels, all those channels would be there too.

Tiscali could try rolling out Homechoice to a greater area, but they'd either have to pay a fortune to install equipment in unbundled exchanges, or else face an astronomical bill from BT Wholesale over all the data being transferred. BT is really the only company who could deliver a large scale ADSL broadcasting system cost effectively.


I doubt anyone will buy it - even Top Up TV themselves operate it at arm's length, with the original linear service being operated by Top Up TV Ltd (as it always has been), but anything connected to Anytime being operated by Top Up TV Europe Ltd (a new company registered in Jersey).

A business which feels the need to spin off a new company just to launch a new product in the same field clearly have doubts as to how succesful that product will be.


That would seem to be the obvious way to go. With MPEG4 streaming, a 2MB ADSL link should be able to provide fairly decent standard definition pictures and fairly decent stereo sound. The system would only be engineered to require a given transfer rate from it's connection, limiting who can provide that connection is purely artificial. Again, forcing someone to change their ISP just to use a TV service makes it less attractive, and takes away any possibility of it becoming a retail product.

The way they've priced it up seems like madness. They make a big point about the box being free, but then require a £30 connection fee and £60 install fee. Surely it would seem like a better product if it was advertised as a £90 box (£90 for a single tuner DTT PVR is an excellent price as it is, without even considering the ADSL capabilities) with free connection, delivery, and installation? It also means that if they ever do see sense and retool it as a retail product, they'll have to think of some other way of packaging the charges.

It's only a single tuner then - but I guess if they get more than just C4 signed up for the "Replay" service that might be less of an issue.


I guess whether it becomes available via other Broadband providers will depend on it's success. If it's only moderately successful, it'll stick with just BT - but if it becomes a desired product competition laws will probably force them to open up to the wider market.