Shakeup in TV viewing arrives
The television market is expected to take a fresh twist and turn today, with Vodafone promising to unveil a service that it says will show ‘‘the future of entertainment is here’’.
Vodafone is expected to launch a newgeneration set-top box that will let viewers watch Sky TV over ultrafast broadband or cable, instead of satellite.
Yet to be revealed is whether the boxes will let them stream films and shows sourced from other television partners, or new programming provided by Sky, in addition to Sky’s existing service.
That appears to be a possibility and could give Vodafone a big leg up in the telecommunications market, which technology director Tony Baird said in August was now all about distributing video.
Sky chief executive John Fellet confirmed in August that, as far he was aware then, Vodafone would offer its new set-top boxes just with its existing content.
At the heart of Vodafone and Sky’s next set-top boxes will be an internetdelivered EPG (electronic programme guide), similar to the kind offered by Netflix.
That should make it much easier for customers to browse and search for programmes to watch on-demand.
The EPG would mean Sky and Vodafone could include software to make recommendations to viewers on shows they might want to watch, in a similar to way to how music service Spotify recommends music to its subscribers.
Those changes, in turn, could open the door to the companies offering a wider range of internet-television programmes, perhaps through partnerships.
Sky and Vodafone have maintained their close partnership despite the country’s competition watchdog blocking their merger in February.
Fellet signalled in August that Vodafone would be first to market with a set-top box featuring an internetdelivered EPG.
Its head-start is thanks to the fact that its boxes – unlike Sky’s – do not need to support satellite reception.
Fellet said Sky could deliver the same feature to about 350,000 of its newer settop boxes through a software upgrade it was about to test.
But it would have to replace its other boxes, which it might not be able to start doing before late next year.