Sky Homes Announces Further Local Authority Deals

Sky Homes has announced a further two agreements to provide council-owned flats with its digital satellite services. The arrangements with Manchester and Aberdeen local authorities come in addition to seven similar deals with other local authorities and 66 pilot scheme partnerships with housing associations and local authorities. These could give BSkyB the competitive edge in securing tens of thousands of subscribers.

BSkyB, of which Sky Homes is a division, has succeeded in persuading the local authorities to install their Integrated Reception System (IRS) in council blocks. IRS includes both a terrestrial aerial and a satellite dish, so residents can either continue to receive analogue signals, or subscribe to BSkyB without having to install a dish or pay an installation charge.

BSkyB claims that the latest arrangements prove that IRS is “becoming the preferred solution for many local authorities that are preparing for the Government’s planned switch-off of analogue transmissions.” To this end, it intends to offer IRS to all the local authorities in the country.

The number of homes made digital-ready by the Manchester and Aberdeen initiatives alone will total 14,000. If all these homes take up the option of Sky Digital services, it would increase its current subscriber total of 2.75m by 0.5%. The potential created by all the schemes together would be very much higher.

The company is quick to point out that IRS leaves consumers “free to choose how they receive television in the digital age”. However, it would seem unlikely that residents of flats enabled for Sky Digital would then look elsewhere for digital services.

This is not the first time that Sky has installed the service before selling the subscription. In 1998 it announced a deal with Wilcon to have its digital dishes installed in 5,000 new homes (see BSkyB To Be Built In To Homes). ONdigital, which lags behind its rival with 647,000 subscribers, last year managed to secure a deal with Glasgow Council to provide 65,000 council homes with digital television services (see ONdigital Wins Glasgow City Council Contract).

BSkyB: 020 7705 3000