U.K. DTV Switchover Imperiled by Consumer Confusion, Sony Says
Consumers are confused, manufacturers are frustrated and govt. bodies underestimate the challenge of the U.K.’s switch to DTV and corresponding analog shutoff, Sony U.K. Managing Dir. Steve Dowdle said last week at a London conference hosted by CE trade association Intellect. Unless the course is righted, the ship will sink and govt. officials “will go down with it,” he said.
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In his address, illustrated with slides of a cargo ship, Dowdle invited the audience to “come on a government sponsored boat cruise around the U.K. to see the potential digital disaster.” Dowdle wanted “language that the bureaucrats will understand - and if the ship sinks they will go down with it,” a Sony insider told Consumer Electronics Daily. The switch will occur in stages 2008-2012 and the ship will sink if an “analog hole” below its waterline isn’t fixed, Dowdle said -- in this case meaning not unauthorized copying of digital content through analog connections, but persistent sale of analog TVs and video products in the U.K.
Dowdle asked if everyone is “singing off the same sheet.” Govt. wants household penetration; CE makers want product conversion, he said. Telecom regulator Ofcom’s upbeat message is that 18 million homes, 72% of U.K. households, have gone digital. But that means the 18 million DTV systems sold are mostly subscription-based from satellite broadcaster BSkyB and cable operators -- not mass market, free-to-air terrestrial DTV receivers, Dowdle said. With 25 million U.K. households, and assuming 2.6 TV sets a home and a “very conservative estimate” of one VCR or DVD recorder per household, U.K. homes hold at least 90 million analog devices, Dowdle said. That means at least 72 million analog products must be replaced - 12 million a year for 6 years through the analog cut-off, he said.
“It’s hardly surprising customers are confused,” Dowdle said, citing the many logos and sales pitches used for DTV, such as subscription cable and satellite, free satellite and terrestrial reception -- and with free satellite and terrestrial offering different choices of programming. “Why don’t the broadcasters support the Digital Tick logo?” Dowdle asked, referring to an industry logo marking a product as DTV-ready. He complained broadcasters aren’t using the logo in their DTV publicity.
Most dangerous to the DTV switch is that analog video devices still sell at about 7.6 million a year, compared with 4.9 million for DTV products, Dowdle said. Analog sales show no sign of flagging; typical retailers stock 137 TV models, 97 analog and 40 digital, he said: “Instead of reducing [analog], with every new purchase that takes place it increases the burden. Unfortunately, the ship will continue to sink unless somebody eventually realizes that we need to repair the hole.”
For the DTV transition, Sony has put its money where its mouth is. As reported here, the company last year discontinued U.K. analog TV sales, except for a special-order 25” set for localities with no DTV broadcasting. “Fix the analog hole and stop the problem,” Dowdle said: “Broadcasters should adopt the Digital Tick in all communications to help consumers understand the total digital picture” and retailers “must stop selling all analog [video] products a minimum of 12 months prior to region analog switch off,” he said. CE makers must stop all analog AV production by 2008, and get the Digital Tick onto packaging and point- of-sale materials, he said.
Elsewhere at the conference, James Soames of telco BT Television Services updated his company’s plans for BT Vision. That’s a VoD service to launch in fall, offering the company’s broadband subscribers a set-top with free terrestrial DTV reception and a hard-drive DVR to record over-air or broadband material. Features include pause and rewind to catch up TV programs in progress, interactivity, wireless broadband for viewing TV on a desktop or notebook PC, VoIP and video telephony. A selection of BBC programs will be available on demand for 7 days after broadcast. Other VoD offerings include movies, near-live sports, children’s programs, videogames, a music video jukebox and user-generated content, Soames said.
Soames stressed BT Vision’s ease of use as crucial in an age when consumers suffer from what he called “choice paralysis.” But cracks began to show in BT’s plans during a Q&A, when longtime CE retailer and journalist Graham Knight asked how the telco would guarantee the data rates needed to deliver the “excellent picture quality” Soames promised -- particularly when many people at once try to use the service.
“BT will offer a service quality guarantee,” Soames said, prompting speculation that BT Vision will have to be a tiered broadband service, with premium pricing for guaranteed high data rates. Soames confirmed Freeview DTV will be received at the set-top by a conventional over-air antenna, with VoD via phone line. In response to our question about how customers will get broadband wireless routers working, and whether they will need to use a PC to register and set up security, Soames confirmed that a BT engineer will install the “hub” -- but he also referred to “self-install.” Questioned further, he said subscribers will install their Freeview receivers but will need a visit from a BT technician for the broadband hub. Soames said he couldn’t give an idea of BT Vision pricing.