BSkyB's future tech plans

James Murdoch, BSkyB's chief executive, has talked about the technical future of satellite TV. As well as discussing broadband, high definition, smart-cards and freesat, he had comments on Sky+:-

Sky’s most successful service innovation to date has been with its Sky+ personal video recorder, but with the increase in the number of users of the Sky+ PVR, the skipping of ads is a potential cause for concern. “The advertising community, I think, has to really engage with this issue,” admits Murdoch. “It is starting to engage now as the numbers grow.” Advertising represents about 8% of total revenue for Sky, but the company stresses that it is nevertheless a very important element of that revenue.

“It’s really incumbent on us and the marketing community to think about different ways and innovative ways to continue to bring those brands to our customers in a way that resonates with them. I think you’ll see more experimentation, you’ll see more things like interactive advertising. You’ll see us working with advertisers in innovative ways to reach our customers and really enhance what they’re already buying from us, in terms of just the pure television advertising stream.”

Sky recently introduced a new Sky+ 160 PVR, with increased storage, but has not broken out the numbers deployed. Initially launched as a premium product at £399, all they will say is that this has been reflected in sales. “Those costs will come down over time, and we intend to pass those savings on to customers to drive it. What you’ll see here is really an evolution of the Sky+ platform. We’ve talked in the past about a platform for future development.”

In his presentation, he referred to USB connectivity in the new PVR box as a platform for future expansion but did not elaborate. Potential applications would include downloading content to portable devices, such as that previously previewed by Pace.

Sky also confirmed that their new high-definition box will also be Sky+ based, to be launched in “early 2006”. This will initially be a premium product, providing an opportunity to up-sell to the upper tier of subscribers.

With regard to storage capacity, he said “It should be clear that we plan to launch higher capacity boxes as the cost of storage comes down. There are not very meaningful limits as the cost comes down over time.”

Full article over at Informitv.