AV zombie

The UK broadcast landscape changes again today with the official unveiling of Freesat, the BBC/ITV joint venture that aims to bring redefine standard and high definition TV services. Unlike Sky, once installed Freesat viewers will have unlimited access to around 80 free-to-air channels. This number is expected to double by the end of the year.
From today, high definition receivers are available from 120 pounds with standard definition models priced at 50 pounds, plus 80 pound dish installation. All receivers are made by the Alba Group, and are for sale under the Bush, Goodman and Alba brands. The service begins with one high definition channel from the BBC, but ITV is expected to offer HD when it joins the platform in a matter of weeks.
Confidence in the system seems high. Freesat’s Commercial Director Richard Lindsay-Davies, says: “This is a supercharged platform in comparison to Freeview and there are some nine million HD-ready TVs out there in the UK that are currently not receiving any HD content. That’s a big potential market.”

PS2 owners have finally begun to migrate to the PlayStation3, thanks to GTA4 hardware bundles. Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President for Merchandising, at US chain GameStop, says: “The launch has been tremendous in driving traffic to our stores, as well as providing a vigorous lift in PS3 console sales over this time last week.”
In the UK, Xbox 360 individual games sales eclipsed those on PS3. Official sales figures show that the Xbox 360 edition sold 335,000 copies on its debut day, compared to the PS3’s 274,000 copies. There’s no confirmation yet on how the console bundle battle is shaking down.
Sony has been banking on PlayStation brand loyalty playing a huge part in the adoption of the PS3 by gamers, even though the overall software base isn’t that compelling. It looks like the latest edition in the Grand Theft Auto franchise may just be the killer-app the platform’s been waiting for.

Blu-ray player sales in the US plummeted in February. According to data released by the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, dedicated player sales dropped 40 per cent, as a string of special retail promotions and bundling deals came to an end. NPD director Ross Rubin suggests that the format war with HD DVD was not as big a factor in player sales as previously thought, saying: “That stand-alone Blu-ray players haven’t picked up significantly from HD DVD’s loss shows that few consumers were dissuaded primarily by the format war. Consumers continue to see a gap between Blu-ray’s premium video quality and its premium price.”
Standard DVD player sales have also slumped, but the upscaling DVD category is booming, bucking the trend with US sales up 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.

Sky now claims to have nine million subscribers. And according to new figures released by the satcaster, viewer churn is at a four year low at 10.5 per cent. Churn is the number one adversary of Pay TV operators. During its third quarter, BSkyB signed up 289,000 new customers, but after churn it was left with just 56,000 additional subscribers. The broadcaster has also revealed that it has 465,000 viewers for its Sky HD service and 3.4m for the Sky+ PVR.  The average annual revenue per viewer is 424 UK pounds.

After a string of romances, Hollywood now seems content to cement its marriage with Video On Demand. Market major Warner says it will release all of its US titles day and date on DVD and VOD from April 30, for the rest of the year. Superior margins on titles proffered for VOD prompted Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes to make the decision. He says: “We are using our position in the industry to lead this transition.” The strategy is expected to be rolled out to major territories outside the US in due course.