The first digital terrestrial television (DTT) service was launched by ONdigital yesterday, the company joint-owned by ITV groups Carlton Communications and Granada. The service was modestly unveiled by the illumination of its Crystal Palace transmitter in London.
A spokesman for ONdigital described the launch as ‘brilliant’ this afternoon saying a Radio Rentals shop sold twenty set-top boxes at midnight on Sunday. The company also fielded around 75,000 telephone calls over the weekend, he said.
ONdigital last week reportedly admitted that the supply of its set-top box units might not be able to meet demand in the early days, although there should not be any supply problems following January. A spokesperson for Dixon’s said that the ONdigital launch in the Oxford Street shop was ‘exciting’ and had gone ‘very well’. Boxes, she said, were walking out of the door and more supplies are being shipped in all the time.
ONdigital’s Andrew Marre said that electrical manufacturer, Philips, is shipping more set-top boxes to outlets all the time, and Pace Microtechnology is about to start producing its digital receiver equipment. At present, however, there is understood to be a substantial deficit of equipment in the High Street electrical stores.
The company launches its service with fifteen channels (see ONdigital Announces Channel Packages And Launch Date), compared to Sky’s 75 or so (see Sky Rolls Out Digital Offerings), and is looking to have ‘tens of thousands’ of subscribers by the end of the year. It is hoped that this will rise to ‘hundreds of thousands’ across the course of next year, according to Marre.
ONdigital faces a tough challenge squaring up to the might of Sky Digital’s launch, particularly as Sky has a cheaper basic programme package (£6.99 per month, compared to ONdigital’s £7.99 per month). Sky is also boasting an eventual selection of over 200 hundred channels, some of which will be audio-only.
ONdigital has a few pullers in its favour: a dish is not required to receive its channels, it will carry ITV and ITV2, whereas Sky Digital currently doesn’t and customers are able to choose the composition of their channel packages to a certain extent. The simplicity of its selection of channels may also appeal to those who feel that Sky’s 200-plus offering is an exercise in quantity over quality.
Broker Merrill Lynch has predicted that ONdigital will have around 780,000 customers by 2000. This compares to a projection of 1.39 million for Sky Digital (see Television’s Digital Future).
ONdigital: 0171 819 8000
