Have Sky and Virgin Media got what they wanted? On 22 October, Sky quietly launched Sky Anytime+, a video-on-demand service that required a vastly expensive rewrite of its set-top box software. “It’s a big job to get right but we think we’ve cracked it,” said Mike Darcey, Sky’s chief operating officer, adding that the service’s lengthy gestation had “caused no pain”. Virgin Media finds itself in a similar position. The cable operator plans to launch its own next-generation on-demand service, powered by TiVo’s set-top boxes, during the fourth quarter of this year. If both companies feel no pain, this may be because they’ve been so successful in delaying YouView, the competing free-to-air platform planned by a seven-strong consortium of broadcasters and ISPs.Sky’s launch came just three days after Ofcom finally cleared the way for YouView. This followed the Office of Fair Trading’s decision not to investigate under competition rules. In June, the BBC Trust greenlit YouView, though it laid down multiple conditions.To read this report in The Guardian in full, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/01/youview-on-demand-television