A new study from Point Topic UK, which looks at the Digital Switchover and availability of Digital Television (DTV) services, has also resulted in an interesting new broadband internet video / TV streaming map of Britain. The map indicates which parts of the UK are currently capable of streaming HD TV video (GREEN coloured areas) and standard TV video (ORANGE). Areas shown as RED find streaming difficult or even impossible (poor broadband).
The analyst firm also revealed that at least 3.1 million households will rely solely on digital terrestrial or satellite delivery for their TV at the end of 2012. In addition, 7.6 million will only be able to get HD live or streamed TV via digital terrestrial or satellite at the end of 2012.
Louise Kavanagh, MD of Digital TV Data Specialists Apogee, said:
"We now have a more complete picture of the intersection between the alternative delivery systems for linear, digital and interactive TV services and there are significant gaps particularly in broadband roll-out. Our estimates show that the consumers choice of what to watch and how will be restricted for up to seven and a half million households in Britain.
This number is coming down as the switchover rolls-out, but it is predicted that there will still be some households in Britain unable to receive both PSB1 and PSB2 at the end of 2012.
There are other platforms that allow viewers to access interactive digital content. Satellite, cable and high-speed broadband are available in many parts of the country. Now that we have more information from BT, Virgin and the other operators implementing next generation access in the UK we can look more closely at the intersections and the various ways that users will be able to access content."
"We now have a more complete picture of the intersection between the alternative delivery systems for linear, digital and interactive TV services and there are significant gaps particularly in broadband roll-out. Our estimates show that the consumers choice of what to watch and how will be restricted for up to seven and a half million households in Britain.
This number is coming down as the switchover rolls-out, but it is predicted that there will still be some households in Britain unable to receive both PSB1 and PSB2 at the end of 2012.
There are other platforms that allow viewers to access interactive digital content. Satellite, cable and high-speed broadband are available in many parts of the country. Now that we have more information from BT, Virgin and the other operators implementing next generation access in the UK we can look more closely at the intersections and the various ways that users will be able to access content."
Sadly 90,000 households will not have access to many digital terrestrial channels and won’t be able to get TV over the internet by the end of 2012, thus their only choice for a full service will be via Satellite (e.g. Sky). Estimates from Apogee put the number of households without access to the primary DTT channels at over four million today.
It's worth pointing out that proper HD streaming requires a very high-bandwidth broadband connection and not everybody will be adopting the new generation of "super-fast" fibre optic internet solutions, even when covered, by 2012. Similarly many will stick with their older and cheaper ISPs and packages, which often suffer far lower broadband speeds and would not be able to handle HD.
UPDATE 12:33pm
We note that Point Topic used a speed of 10Mbps to define a viable HDTV stream.
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Comments: 1
MrJPosted: 8 September, 2010 - 12:30 PM
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Hmm... looks like a map of Britain to me - there's no Northern Ireland, so it can't be the UK . . .
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