New television services delivered via broadband will be a key part of BSkyB‘s strategy throughout the next year, as the operator looks to add other services to complement its existing satellite TV offerings, company officials said at the Royal Television Convention in Cambridge, England.

BSkyB is looking to move away from its traditional satellite roots and use other platforms to derive revenues and boost its competitive position in the market. The launch of high-definition (HD) services, planned for 2006, likely will accelerate BSkyB’s broadband plans further, as the HD box will have significant storage capacity and an Ethernet connection, which will enable BskyB to deliver services via broadband. “We still see satellite as the best platform, but we want to embrace new platforms and technologies and supplement our vast range of content from satellite,” Robert Fraser, a spokesman at BSkyB told Satellite News. Among the operator’s other plans are forays into video-on- demand services and delivering sports content to personal computers.

The move to embrace broadband and have more on-demand services is intended to negate some of the traditional advantages enjoyed by cable operators in the battle for subscribers, a media equity analyst who requested anonymity said. “I think with the Ethernet connection, [BSkyB is] looking for some way to ensure that they can provide every kind of service that the consumer could want. A combination of satellite plus DSL makes a lot of sense.”

The Ethernet addition also will help BskyB in other service arenas, the analyst added. “The argument has always been against Sky having a DSL plug back into the box, because they would lose the ability to control the consumer,” the analyst said. “The idea of having an always-on connection into the back of box, is not just about providing one-to-one type services such as but also it applies to things like gaming. Gaming is the fastest growing product in Sky’s business right now. That could be somewhere where they could get some very interesting revenues.”

Conor O’Shea, a media equity analyst at Teather and Greenwood said, “Sky acquired a DSL licence a couple of years back. It has always been something that they have wanted to look at, in particular, in terms of providing their own DSL service, because you have a lot of the non-digital homes in urban areas, it is more difficult for a satellite operator. DSL distribution is a way for them to get to 10 million subscribers without having to rely exclusively on satellite.”

–Mark Holmes

(Robert Fraser, BSkyB, Robert.fraser@bskyb.com; Conor O’Shea, Teathers and Greenwood, Conor.oshea@teathers.com)