Is YouView good for the industry?

Overcoming an embarrassing introduction, which saw the chair of this morning’s Westminster Media Forum call on the CEO of YouTube rather than YouView, Richard Halton set out to update delegates about the upcoming service, but not to update them too much.

Despite being YouView’s first major public outing, Halton gave a slightly tame summary, whilst claiming that the VoD service represents a “fantastic moment for the TV industry”.

The key benefits of YouView are independence: It has no ties with ISPs, which means anyone can use it regardless of what internet service they have; it is an open platform and therefore good for the content industry as it will “unlock the big screen”; and it does not rely on a single manufacturer, according to Halton.

He said the service is a consumer-centric model, designed to offer a simple proposition that will integrate consumers’ current TV sets with the internet.  “TV will thrive when it gets connected,” he added.

The YouView CEO also promised to “co-develop” and said the company wants to share information with content providers.  “It is a forward-looking commitment to supporting the content industry,” he said. And in addition, Halton is convinced that the service will be “good for manufacturers”.  YouView is already working with Humax, Cisco and Intel among others.

“It is a difficult space but we’re breaking in to new areas,” Halton said as he explained that YouView received expressions of interest from 40 companies to ‘work together’ on the product.  However, it is still unclear how the service will work with manufacturers and content providers.  Will it eventually be built in to the new TV you’re looking to buy so you won’t need another piece of equipment?  Will Sky ever want to share big sporting events with YouView?  And how is it going to better what other manufacturers and content providers are also striving to achieve?

It might be an attractive proposition but will it make you upgrade your current TV subscription/set-top box (particularly if Virgin and Sky build on or start to offer similar rewind/catch-up services)?  Clearly YouView sees the current 10 million Freeview customers as its greatest sales opportunity initially but Halton was not anticipating rapid wholesale conversion – “if it ever happens it will take a long time for Freeview to equal YouView”.

This morning’s delegates definitely know the positives about YouView, and there is no doubt the service has huge potential.  However, Halton was coy about the specifics.

The target launch date for the product is still “the first half of 2011”. There are 100+ people working on the launch and in-home trials have started (and will be ramping up for next year) but there was no hint of whether a launch is likely in January or June.  If it is the latter, will it still be able to boast its current USP?

Halton also kept quiet about price.  Newsline understands that a YouView set-top box will cost around £200, although partners BT and TalkTalk may well subsidise early sales.

Another question that perhaps warranted a more detailed answer was the impact YouView could have on the broadband infrastructure.  Will there be a huge demand on infrastructure if the service takes off?  Halton said ISPs are making big investments now to deal with this issue, and they “understand the challenge”.  But it was not clear whether customers using some ISPs will be at a disadvantage if they are unable to make the investment required.  And it seems increasingly likely that customers will – through one billing route or another – pay more for accessing TV over broadband.

Halton also dodged a benchmark question. “Take-up will be our benchmark of success,” he said without mentioning any numbers.

MediaTel’s TV Summit will discuss these points further on 25th November.  Click here for more information or to book your ticket.

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