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ITV Over Broadband
(05-01-07) - ITV has announced that it is to launch a free broadband service offering real-time viewing and downloads of its television programmes.
The company’s new TV on demand site is due to be launched in March and will allow users to download “live” and 30 day “catch-up” programmes. The site will feature programmes from all four ITV channels, as well as user generated content, made popular by sites such as YouTube.
Set up as a rival to the already up-and-running services from Channel 4, the BBC and Sky, ITV’s new service will massively increase competition in the growing internet protocol television (IPTV) market.
The downloading of television programmes makes up a huge part of illegal peer-to-peer downloads, but until now, the vast majority of legal downloads had to be paid for – doing little in the fight against illegal downloading. For example, a single episode of Lost series three, downloaded from Sky will set you back £2.50.
However, ITV’s free downloads will be able to finally tempt downloaders away from peer-to-peer sites, and the increased competition might also influence ISPs and content providers others to follow suit.
Chris Eagle, DigitalChoices Commercial Manager said: “ITV has been slow in responding to the opportunities broadband offers for distributing content; the BBC has been doing this for nearly 5 years”. He followed up by saying “Services like this will really shake up the industry as the TV schedule will be thrown out of the window. Advertisers will have to think carefully how they talk to customers that simply fast forward advertisements.”
