BT and TalkTalk to become majority shareholders in YouView
- As just 3% of YouView boxes are retail, the box has failed to become the champion of free TV.
- BBC has private concerns about the use of public money for the benefit of private companies.
- Negotiations are under way with a decision expected by 31 March.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/04/bbc-to-slash-youview-investment
- BBC has private concerns about the use of public money for the benefit of private companies.
- Negotiations are under way with a decision expected by 31 March.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/04/bbc-to-slash-youview-investment
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Comments
All makes sense - BT and Talk Talk have effectively stolen the platform because, of course, people are always going to take the subsidised option in preference to a full price one. It's actually proving a success as an IPTV add-on to Freeview, whereas it's just too expensive to be a massive hit for straight retail purchasers.
So the broadcasters are probably right to reduce their ties and funding, and instead ensure availability of their players across a number of different platforms instead. The BBC in particular shouldn't be spending more money on what is becoming a Pay TV alternative to Freeview.
They may be rueing the day they got in bed with BT & Talk Talk, but then again Youview may not still be around if they hadn't.
As for Arqiva, I do wonder whether we'll ever see the 225-239 channels on Youview now as they are not in BT or Talk Talks interest, although we probably will see Unicast added to support SD IPTV via non-multicast enabled exchanges.
And I say this as the owner of a retail box myself!
How will this affect the Yoview service in say a year or two from now.
Darren
It was launched too late, most people at that time already had a PVr of some sort and was not willing to spend £300 for another box, ok the price have gone down now, but still too little to late.
Saying that, if I was looking for a HD PVr, then I would have a look at a You view box, because the price is pretty good now, £160 from Amazon would get a Bt You view box, not sure what make it is mind you and I would have to cover up the Bt logo
But for a HD PVR that is a good price, but at the moment I am don't need one, because I have got a HD PVr in a box in the bedroom and also I i don't have live TV.
As a retail unit it have failed, the only reason there You view is still going is because of Bt and Talk Talk virtually giving it away.
So how many of that extra 13% have a You View box? A lot of people that got a PVR have got one because of Sky or Virgin. Normaly Freeview users only buy a PVR if freeview is their only form of TV.
The reason I got a PVr, was mainly because it was a lot easier to use than connecting my freeview box up to my DVD recorder.
Darren
I know of someone who did as well, but I think they got it off Ebay and it is used as a second PVR.
That is the one problem with you View, as far as I know you can't have two running at the same time on the same account. so if you got a You view box downstairs with say the Talk Talk package, you can't have another one upstairs with the same package.
With Sky you can have multi-room, even if you do have to pay over the top for it.
I doubt it will fail as in go away, not for a few years anyway, Bt and Talk Talk will not let it happen, but as a retail PVR, it have failed. Very few people gone into a shop and paid money for one.
I'm not unduly troubled by this move as it makes sense. The free to air operators will still be there but with a reduced role and presence.
I would have expected the unbranded, no strings attached vanilla Youview boxes to do quite well in terms of volume sales but that hasn't happened. Instead, what's happened is that BT and TalkTalk have subsidised their respective customised Youview boxes by giving them away free, etc. to encourage people to sign up to their combined pay-TV and broadband services and so on.
That has turned out to be a successful strategy for both BT and TalkTalk and they are now vying with each other for 5th place in terms of TV platform popularity as we can see here: TalkTalk TV could beat BT to the first million milestone
One of the interesting contrasts is that Freesat's equivalent of Youview, Freetime, is proving to be popular and is helping to drive the uptake of Freesat itself: Freetime boxes now account for 40% of all Freesat set-top box sales
If you have two or more boxes on the same broadband connection they will function quite happily, although at present they cannot access each other's recordings.
I think it's right that the PSB shareholders take a step back from YouView funding now it's established and become a pay TV/broadband bundle dominated platform, even though the retail YouView boxes may only have sold about 30,000 units, lot's more subsidised boxes may have been sold second hand as viewers move between the platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if YouView total purchases (retail + second hand) were pretty close to Freetime sales.
As a Freesat viewer I would welcome an increased focus on the platform from the BBC and ITV.
Yes I can also confirm that two boxes will function fine, I have my older box in the bedroom and both boxes function perfectly well simultaneously or on seperate ip channels or on-demand content
It was becoming increasingly hard to see why the BBC should play a prominent role in what has effectively become a Pay TV platform.
It's a shame, it had such potential as a simple way to receive free connected services but I strongly suspect the mismanagement and delays have effectively allowed BT & TalkTalk to almost hijack the project to serve their own business interests.
If BT boxes are set up the same as Talk Talk that would be fine. Obviously it would depend on your download speed. I'm lucky I'm near the exchange and on fibre and never see a pixel out of place even when both are on internet channels
More specifically I can confirm that with two boxes and a TalkTalk TV subscription I can watch one programme on iPlayer in one room, and a different programme on iPlayer in another room (I've just checked!)
I know they can function, but can say a Talk Talk customer who got two boxes be able to watch content that Talk Talk supplies on both boxes?
That is if you get a decent speed.
However, I do feel that the whole Freeview/Freeview HD/YouView situation is confusing to those outside this forum. I believe the two bodies need to merge so that YouView becomes the standard for future Freeview HD PVRs/Connected TVs and that YouView should be truly Freeview HD compatible and able to get the IPTV channels in the 200s.
I think there would have been more retail sales if manufacturers like Sagemcom and Vestel had come on board to produce more mass market devices but with the flood of TalkTalk boxes on the market, I can't see this happening unless YouView and Freeview merge.
What we may see first are Freeview HD sets with the YouView interface added from the OEM makers like Vestel or more likely Cello who seem to concentrate on the UK market. With higher power processors and memory becoming ever cheaper, ones with features like the Huawei "zapper" DN360T the extra cost should be fairly marginal at the higher end. YouView have already expressed interest in this route but whether this will change with the ISPs becoming the majority remains to be seen.
Check out this thread from the YouView forum - look at the post which quotes a thread from the BT forum : https://community.youview.com/youview/topics/humax_huawei_bt_talktalk_what_works_with_what
(Too many forums going on perhaps?)
Darren