Sky's decision not to offer catch-up seems like a missed opportunity given the popularity of such services on Virgin's cable platform and through the BBC iPlayer. While it is obvious that Sky would not be eager to follow Virgin and integrate BBC iPlayer functionality into its own VoD service, it seems a strange decision not to develop a catch-up offer for Sky-branded channels. Sky claims that its current Anytime push service and Sky Plus DVR fulfill the role of catch-up, but this combination doesn't allow users to view shows that they hear about the next day from friends and colleagues, surely a key benefit of true catch-up. Sky's advertising strategy is not surprising, given that the Anytime push service already features advertising before and during shows. The strategy regarding specific Anytime advertising sales is still being worked out, not least because users are able to fast-forward through the pre-roll adverts, even on downloaded content. Tying the service to a Sky Broadband subscription for quality of service control' is also a wise move. As well as pushing customers towards paid broadband (users will hit the broadband cap on the free service with a single movie a month combined with regular surfing) it is likely to also boost uptake of the Sky phone service due to pricing differentials on broadband with and without a Sky Talk service. Although Sky is remaining tight-lipped on an exact launch date, it will begin staff trials next week and it seems certain that a late Q3 2010 launch would be the best strategy, allowing time for a marketing build-up pre-Christmas. We expect the new service to have a moderately positive impact on overall subscriber growth and a more noticeable impact on paid broadband uptake and telephony.