Published:
14-Apr-08
The UK's Top Up TV is to launch a pay digital terrestrial television service in France through new majority-owned local operation Vest@vision. Top Up TV operates the eponymous UK push PVR subscription pay TV service offered in the UK as an add-on to Freeview. It owns 75 per cent of Vest@vision. Called TNtop the French service marks the first international expansion for Top Up. TNTop will be one of several individually-branded pay TV add-on services available to French DTT viewers. All are currently offering the same package of basic pay TV channels, as French regulators have opened up the pay TV DTT market to third-party distributors. The market is already crowded with players such as TV Numeric, BisTV and as-yet-to-launch Neotion. TNtop is the first of the third-party distributors to reach agreement to resell the premium Canal Plus channels, also available on DTT.
This DTT pack is will operate via a Sagem set-top box sold for approximately þ100 and giving access to the 18 free-to-air DTT channels, bundled with a one-year subscription to eight existing basic pay DTT channels for þ8 per month. Canal Plus channels are available for an additional fee. The TNtop box is an HD-MPEG-4 box and Vest@vision is betting on the hype that will be generated by the launch of five free HD channels on DTT later this year to drive awareness.
Our take...
British DTT specialist Top Up TV will primarily bring its marketing expertise to the French market. When Top Up first launched in the UK it was a traditional linear subscription TV service. It has since changed its business model to a push on-demand service using dedicated PVR boxes available in UK retail outlets. The specification for TNtop boxes does not include PVR functionality, however. The key issue with the new add-on French pay TV offers is that the boxes are MPEG-4 HD-ready. TNTop will launch in May, ahead of a big summer of sports. Key games from the UEFA European Champions League will be broadcast in HD France from June and are likely to be available in HD quality on DTT in some regions. From October, five new HD channels will launch on DTT, four of which will be free. Homes equipped with basic zapper DTT boxes in France and current IDTVs will not be able to receive these channels without a new set-top box. The HD issue combined with the summer of key sports (soccer and Olympics) is bound to generate some market response and drive DTT penetration through 2008. We forecast more than 9m French homes will be using DTT as their primary TV platform by end-2008.
France,
