文档介绍：institut
de l’audiovisuel
et des munications
en europe
Development
of Digital TV
in Europe
United Kingdom /
January 2000
70052 - 2 -
Development of digital TV in United Kingdom
1 UK Digital TV market overview
Roll-out of digital services
Satellite digital services
SkyDigital, the service which dominates the UK digital satellite direct-to-home TV market,
launched on October 1st 1998. It is operated by BSkyB, the leading payTV service operator in
the UK and Ireland. SkyDigital reached million subscribers one year after launch. The
SkyDigital launch was the most essful launch of any digital service in the world. This
compares with a total of million analogue satellite subscribers. The size of the analogue
segment is declining as households switch to digital. Digital terrestrial was launched a month
later and digital cable a year later than digital satellite.
SkyDigital subscribers
End- 98 End-June 99 End-Sep 99
225,000 753,000 1,270,000
A major impetus to the transition to digital is the announcement by BSkyB that it will be
switching off its analogue services by the end of 2002. This will save Sky some €80m . in
analogue satellite transponder fees. This bined with the release of ‘free’
set-top boxes will encourage existing analogue satellite customers to make the transition. This
presents a significant challenge to the main multi-petitors the panies,
which have only just started converting consumers to digital.
Cable digital services
Cable services were launched on a ‘soft’ basis in the summer of 1999. However, the
continuing uncertainty over the ownership and technology choice of the panies
prevented a full launch until October 1999 when Telewest launched Active Digital. The
initial response of customers has been very positive with take-up rates higher than for
analogue cable.
For the past few years, the focus of the panies has been on building out their
network franchises and in developing the