Patricia Hodgson, chief executive of the Independent Television Commission, claims the BBC’s decision to launch a free satellite service will have a profound effect on the broadcasting landscape.
Speaking at the IEA conference in London yesterday, Hodgson described the Corporation’s decision to end its conditional access deal with BSkyB and begin transmitting its channels unencrypted on digital satellite (see
BBC Ends £85m Conditional Access Contract With BSkyB), as the most extraordinary development since the start of cable and satellite broadcasting.
According to a report in today’s Guardian, she expressed her surprise that so few people had realised the significance of the move, saying: “I would imagine that within two or three years you’ll have a BBC electronic programme guide as part of a combined Freeview and freesat service. That is going to change the broadcasting ecology in a way in which nobody imagined.”
Analysts put the carriage revenue that BSkyB generates from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five at £25 million a year (see INSIGHTanalysis: BBC’s Exit From Carriage Deal Will Not Hurt Sky). Hodgson said she expects other terrestrial broadcasters to follow the BBC’s lead and end their conditional access deals.
This would mean that programmes, currently encrypted and only accessible to Sky Digital viewers, would be available free of charge to anyone with a digital satellite dish. The BBC will begin broadcasting its channels in this way at the end of the month.
Speculation suggests that following the BBC’s move, retailers may start selling digital satellite equipment that is not linked to Sky, allowing viewers to receive unencrypted channels without a Sky viewer card or subscription.
The BBC recently ended its long running dispute with Sky over the positioning of BBC1 and BBC2 on the satellite broadcaster’s electronic programming guide and secured their current 101 and 102 positions on the EPG (see BBC Resolves Digital Distribution Dispute With BSkyB).
Earlier this week Five helped to quash speculation that other terrestrial broadcasters would begin broadcasting unencrypted on digital satellite by renewing its conditional access agreement with Sky (see Five Renews Conditional Access Deal With Sky).
