BT's vision becomes clear at last

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 4 Dec 2006 at 11:36

BT has finally unveiled its long-awaited IPTV service, BT Vision.

BT Vision is essentially an 80GB Freeview PVR (personal video recorder), with video-on-demand facilities provided over a broadband internet connection. The company will offer a variety of content, including movies, music videos and catch-up TV over the pay-per-view service.

BT is also following Sky's lead, by putting live football at the centrepiece of its offering. The company claims it will have 75% of Premiership matches available from next season, on either a live or nearly-live basis.

BT claims its service will offer a wider choice of programming than is currently available to Freeview customers, but at "much better value" than either satellite or cable television. The list of content partner is impressive, with household names such as Channel 4, Warner Bros and the BBC on board.

However, the selection of paid-for content available on demonstration machines at the official launch this morning was far from compelling, with Spice Girls videos, ET and The Who concerts among the selected "highlights".

Equally baffling is the option to rent "classic albums" such as U2's Joshua Tree for £1.99 for 24 hours. Picture quality of the pay-per-view elements also showed noticeable signs of compression on the demonstration machines.

BT claims Vision will shake up the digital television market. "No longer is TV in the hands of the schedulers. We're passing you the control. It's you that's going to have the choice, it's you that's going to have the convenience. We allow you to watch when you want to watch. It's on demand - you don't wait for it download, it's available immediately," said Ian Livingston, CEO of BT Retail.

The set-top box, which is manufactured by Philips and based on Microsoft's IPTV platform, has the capacity to record 80 hours of programming and allows viewers to pause or rewind live television. The company claims the box is "future proof" with a HDMI connection and the ability to upgrade the firmware. The company also claimed it will be perfectly possible to download high-definition video in the future, although refused to offer a date for such services.

Vision will initially only be available to customers with a 2MB connection who pre-registered for the service, before being made widely available to BT Total Broadband customers next year. BT is giving the "£199" BT Vision box to customers for free at launch, but they will have to pay a £30 connection fee and £60 engineer installation charge, plus their normal monthly broadband subscription. BT plans to launch a self-install version next year.