Sky to launch online TV service

Satellite TV giant, BSkyB, has revealed plans to launch an online digital TV service. In a move that pits the company against online film and TV content providers such as LoveFilm and Netflix, BSkyB has announced that the new service will be available to Irish and British existing and non-Sky customers.

Additionally, the provision of this new digital TV service will come without the need of a contract or indeed a satellite dish meaning potential extended market reach for Sky here in Ireland.
BSkyB announced their online TV plans as the company released figures that showed it had added 40,000 net new customers to its subscription TV service in the second quarter which was slightly lower than had been hoped for yet Sky customer loyalty remains strong.

With stiff competition from services such as LoveFilm in the UK and Netflix in both the UK and here in Ireland along with the potential of increased spend on soccer rights and on investment in faster broadband services, shares in BSkyB climbed to 685.5 pence recently on the London Stock Exchange; that’s a 3 per cent growth compared to a fall of 11 per cent year to date.

Rather than investing in its own fibre network, BSkyB stated that it would use BT’s infinity structure on a wholesale basis to provide speeds of 40 megabits per second to its customers. This move to offer faster broadband perfectly complements the company’s strategy of moving into non-contract online content services. And while BSkyB has previously offered online content to Irish customers, the decision to open their service to non-Sky customers heralds a new approach.

With Netflix announcing their arrival in Ireland and Britain a few weeks ago, this move is seen as a tactic to extend their reach within both markets given that LoveFilm has recently launched a new discount service in the UK.

And here in Ireland, as online content services with the RTE Player and the 3 Player (from TV3), Sky has identified the online sphere as a growth area which it intends to establish itself within. The service is expected to launch in the first half of 2012 and will allow Irish subscribers to view Sky content including movies and, it is believed, sports too all on a variety of non-contract tariffs.