Chorus NTL’s on-demand service will complement its HD offer
Chorus NTL is to launch video-on demand services, including a television catch-up service, next year.
The cable network will also launch new high-speed broadband packages of “up to 120megabits per second’‘ (Mbs) in 2010, thanks to a fresh investment of €100 million in its Irish network.
The company’s plans come in the wake of its newly-launched high definition service, HD+.
Chorus NTL launched its HD service two years after Sky entered the Irish market with high definition television channels. So far, take-up of Sky’s HD service has been sluggish, due to a limited amount of content and the extra cost of upgrading to HD. Sky is understood to have around 75,000 HD customers in Ireland, from a total of over 500,000 subscribers.
The slow take-up of high definition services was cited as a reason for not investing in the technology by RTE’s head of television, Noel Curran, who has ruled out any investment in HD programming in the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think any broadcaster of our size is rushing into HD,” he said.” We’re constantly monitoring the situation but we won’t be launching HD in the short term. The take-up isn’t there yet.”
RTE’s domestic rival, TV3, also will not be introducing high definition programming. At present, the majority of HD programming is made in the US. Most popular drama series are available in high definition on American cable television channels.
Sky and the BBC have increased their high definition output over the past three years. ITV has announced that it will soon enter the high definition broadcasting arena in time for the football lWorld Cup in 2010.
Simon Kelehan, head of TV in Chorus NTL, said that the cable operator’s HD service was immediately available to” nearly 500,000 homes’‘ in urban areas around Ireland, including Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. Sligo would come on stream by the end of the year, he said.
After that, small cities and towns will be assessed on a” case by case basis’‘, he said. But the company was aspiring to a nationwide roll-out and, to this end, Kelehan said that Chorus NTL was investing €90 million in the network this year and another €100 million next year.
Kelehan said that Chorus NTL was investing “considerably’‘ in its HD service, mainly through the subsidy of a high-specification set-top box, which will be free to new customers and €60 for existing customers.
The set-top box doubles as a 360GB programme recorder, and holds about 140 hours of ordinary digital TV and about 40 hours of HD television.
Kelehan said that new video-on-demand services were also being pencilled in for the second half of 2010.
This will take the form of a catch-up service for 30 days and a premium movie download service, of the type already available to UPC’s Dutch customers.
One significant hurdle for Chorus NTL is the lack of Sky stations in its line-up. However, the operator has compensated for the lack of live football on Sky Sports by recently signing a deal with ESPN, which covers live Premier League football.
ESPN will broadcast 46 English Premier League games and 30 Scottish Premier League football games this season. Both sets of matches will be available in standard definition and high definition. ESPN also shows live Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, Dutch Eredivisie, Portuguese Liga, Russian Premier League and Major League Soccer from the US.
Sport is seen as one of the two main attractions to order high definition images. Films are the second most important reason cited by consumers for upgrading to high definition services.
Chorus NTL is spending €90million this year on upgrading the cable company’s network to ensure that it can offer high-speed broadband of up to 100 megabits-per-second, as well as so-called triple play services.
These include the provision of high speed broadband, television and phone service through a single cable connection.
