In a not very suprising move BSkyB today said that they are looking at adding new pay-TV services, and that it may eventually move to a hybrid platform of satellite and broadband delivery. Analysts have noted that BSkyB rents rather than owns satellite capacity, so it could move towards Internet distribution over time.
“New Ethernet connections will allow us to deliver services such as VOD (video on demand) over a broadband pipe as well as over satellite,” Chief Operating Officer Richard Freudenstein
If Sky did pursue this, it’ll be interesting to see which approach they go for – will Sky just become a destination service or does Sky have ambitions to become an ISP itself?
The latest Sky+ boxes have extra capacity that currently is ‘dormant’ so maybe this space is being earmarked for any internet services, although I think it is more likely that this space will be taken up by a future VoD service.
