Web TV service YouView is to go on sale by the end of this month in the UK. Jonathan Doran, principal analyst, Ovum Consumer, looks at the key implications for UK ISPs.
The YouView launch marks the arrival of yet another connected TV option onto the shelves of the UK consumer electronics retail outlets and yet another potential decision for consumers to make about which device to use as their main source of home video entertainment.
What sets YouView apart from most existing OTT TV options is that it promises to pull together baseline linear TV services – which are still very much in demand in the UK at least and a range of web-delivered, on-demand video options into the same device and, more importantly the same interface.
This is something the most widely adopted large-screen OTT options available via games consoles and connected TVs have failed to do. While the UI looks sleek and the expected line-up of content partners is impressive, we didn’t see anything particularly revolutionary about the highlighted features such as the backward-looking EPG and search capabilities across both broadband and broadcast content sources.
Given high price point and the availability of only a single retail launch model, it would appear that YouView is banking on its ISP members to do most of the marketing and customer education around the product. Inevitably, service providers will offer STB subsidies to attract consumers to their YouView propositions.
Whilst concrete details of BT and Talk Talk service launches have yet to be announced, it was indicated today that they will be offering YouView as a value-add to their broadband offerings rather than a standalone TV service.
This imminent shift of the telcos away from a closed network subscription TV model towards a semi-tethered broadband VAS proposition is probably the most significant implication of the arrival of YouView.
By Jonathan Doran
Principal analyst
Ovum Consumer
www.Ovum.com