January 18, 2005

FilmFlex Launches VOD Service in the U.K.

According to Variety, FilmFlex, a joint venture between Sony Pictures Television International, Walt Disney Television International and the On Demand Group, in launched their new VOD services today. The offering, which serves customers of U.K. cable companies NTL and Telewest, will offer hundreds of new release and back catalog titles. However, according to the article, it looks like VOD technology is lagging across the pond:

[the service] will compete with BSkyB's digital video recorder system, Sky Plus, already in half a million of the satcaster's 7.1 million subscriber homes. While it does not offer VOD, auds can assemble their own viewing schedules including movies.


VOD has been slow to develop in the U.K. due to the lack of technical infrastructure.


Local services are available in London via HomeChoice and in Hull via Kingston Communications. But faster takeup of broadband may change that.

Broadband services of the sort that enable VOD and high-speed internet services have lagged in the UK and throughout Europe over the last several years, but according to several published reports like this, we may see them quickly catch up:

Strategy Analytics' recent report, “Broadband in Europe: Competition Heats Up At Last,” predicts that European countries will boast an average broadband penetration rate of 40 percent by 2008, with countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium seeing penetration rates as high as 60 percent.

With the rapid spread of higher speeds, the marketing needs of telcos and cable providers is shifting:

Broadband marketing is now entering the third phase in its evolution," says Martin Olausson, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics. "Price tiering aimed at different user segments is now widespread, but successful service providers will be those that embrace multiple broadband services such as VoIP and video."

Variety.com - FilmFlex bows VOD services

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