The development of digital terrestrial television (DTT) has been hampered by substandard marketing, lukewarm government support and poor targeting of services, according to a new report from the Yankee Group. Nonethess, the study, entitled ITV Update, Part 1:DTT Down, But Is It Out?, is essentially optimistic about the future of the medium.
The report concentrates on the recent tribulations in three key DTT markets: the UK, Spain and Sweden. 2002 has seen the high profile failures of ITV Digital and Quiero TV and the Yankee Group deduces that a major shortcoming has been “a split focus on high-end functionality and low-end programming.”
However, the author, Scott Smith, is confident that TV operators and technology providers have learned from their experiences. “While DTT’s problems seem massive at the moment, strategies are redirected to encourage households that are less technologically advanced to adopt simple, low-cost DTT,” he said.
In the UK, a BBC led consortium has been granted the DTT licences formerly held by ITV Digital (see BBC/BSkyB To Reap Fruits Of DTT Victory, Says Lehman Brothers) and Smith believes that redistribution will precede “a rationalisation of programming costs, and an increased role for the public sector in set-top box distribution.”
The Yankee Group claims that the priority for the DTT market will be to produce a simple and affordable digital TV product and “enable a clear upgrade path that gives consumers real control over their viewing choices.”
The study forecasts that proposed analogue switch off deadlines will have to be pushed back, and that governments are unlikely to be able to generate a restart of industry development. However, it concludes that a more sensible distribution of licences and set-top boxes will ensure that past mistakes are not repeated.
