Freeview Playback To Be Widely Available By Next Summer
Six major manufacturers have signed up to produce the Freeview Playback digital TV recorders, with some devices slipping into the market via Sony centres in time for Christmas, despite a delay to the product’s major marketing campaign.
Alba, Humax, Sagem, Sharp, Sony, and TVonics have signed up to make the recorders, which will not be properly advertised until next year after a technical hitch delayed the product’s manufacture (see Freeview Playback Service Is Delayed).
By next Easter, Freeview expects a wide-range of Freeview Playback products from key manufactures to be available from major high street retailers by July 2007.
Freeview has developed a marketing plan for Freeview Playback to raise awareness amongst consumers and ensure clear visibility of the brand in retail. The three key features of the marketing campaign will be a publicity drive to generate positive word of mouth around Freeview Playback through seeding campaigns with key opinion formers and brand ambassadors.
The company will also forge retail partnerships to establish a digital TV recorder category in-store and achieve a strong brand presence for Freeview Playback through branded products and point of sale. There will also be a new media campaign: to drive traffic to the Freeview website and raise consumer awareness of Freeview Playback digital TV recorders.
Recent figures show that the Freeview platform is set to overtake Sky by around the end of this year, whilst Freeview recently unveiled a new brand to raise further awareness of the platform (see Freeview Develops New Brand To Raise Awareness Of Platform).
“Our aim is for Freeview Playback digital TV recorders to be widely available throughout the market by the end of 2007,” said Cary Wakefield, Freeview general manager. “The involvement of these key manufacturers confirms our commitment to clearly define the digital TV recorder category and is a major step towards establishing an industry standard by providing a quality assurance for consumers.”
Freeview: 08708 80 99 80 www.freeview.co.uk