Report by Alan Jay

This week I met with James Soames, SKY+ Product Marketing manager. He was very enthusiastic about the launch and was keen to emphasize that the SKY+ product will evolve over the coming months and years. So far the launch has been a tremendous success with SKY already hitting their 3 month sales targets in just a couple of weeks of deliveries. On the other hand, this does mean that installations are taking longer than SKY would have liked as they haven't yet trained up enough installers.

So how does SKY+ fit into the future of set top boxes, Personal Video Recorders etc?

SKY's second entry into the PVR market - though they like to call it an iPTR (Integrated Personal Television Recorder) - is an interesting product. The first thing to be said about SKY+ is that it is conceptually the right way to go for Digital Satellite television. It records the broadcast data stream from the satellite directly onto the hard disk. The quality is therefore defined by the broadcaster - SKY's satellite system uses variable bit rates that are statistically multiplexed by sophisticated systems in the head end to maximise the quality vs. bandwidth issues on each transponder.

This may sound like technobable but what it means for the user is that the most compressible channels will record longer than fast moving action at higher bandwidths will. For a consumer oriented product however it does provide an awful lot of places where it tells you how much disk is being used.

SKY+ is aimed to be a super-set of the current SKY interface, so anyone who currently uses the SKY service and its planner already knows how to use SKY+. This was an important goal for SKY but it is also its biggest weakness.

SKY+ does some things really well but it is limited by the same token because it uses the same interface that the current SKY boxes use. Setting up a recording is easy and I would be much happier explaining how to do this to my Grandmother than with a Tivo.

This can mean that finding and setting recordings can however be slightly clunky (if you are used to technology), and because it relies on the broadcaster to send valid series links and timings to the system SKY don't have as much control over some of the elements that they might like. Series Links are also very simple in their approach they simply link the current programme to the next one - if you cancel a link in the chain all subsequent ones disappear. But equally because they come from the broadcasters they can be series and time specific so you can record all of Stargate series one at 6am each day and not get the repeats later in the day or the new series on Wednesdays. If you are using the A-Z listings only being able to select the first letter doesn't make finding programmes a simple as it could be (but expect the one letter issue to be dealt with).

On the other hand starting a programme recording while watching it is instantaneous - also you can use the search and scan button to set a future recording. So, overall, the system delivers for the SKY customer a product that simply extends the functionality they are used to with recording to the local hard disk.

Pausing live TV works but there is no live TV buffer. One curiosity is pausing a programme records to the end of the programme it doesn't pause live TV till you come back. On the other hand punching the record button is a quick alternative, if you are not recording another programme at the time - though it also records to the end of the programme but allows you to change channels and do other things with the set top box where live TV pause cannot be exited and returned to.

Fast Forward is up to 12 times with an increase to 24 expected in the next few months. It is also a true fast forward not appearing to drop frames to achieve the speedup. There is no instant reply or "video buffer" but again this is likely to change - though the current discussion within is SKY is how the buffer should work - how long should it be.

Software Upgrades

According to James Soames, the SKY+ Product Manager, they have been told that there will be regular upgrades of the software as more functionality is rolled out; and that it will happen regularly to ensure that people feel that they are getting regular injections of new functionality. Under the surface there seems to be a feeling that they need to demonstrate that the £10 per month is being spent developing and deploying new functions as soon as they can be released. Reading between the lines it appears that some of the functionality was available at launch but they decided to hold it back.

Dolby Digital

For those with Dolby Digital 5.1 amplifiers you can expect to see DD 5.1 encoded programming before the end of the year and the only question is on which channels. You might say but surely movie channels but from SKY's discussions with some of the DVD distributors Dolby 5.1 has become the "must have" buzzword even for people who don't yet have the correct amplification and speakers - if it doesn't have it isn't worth buying. So this may well mean that there will be deployment onto the sports channels to give SKY something else they can market to the British Public as a benefit of Satellite over terrestrial and cable. There will be demos of this technology at a trade show in the next couple of weeks. According to Soames, there is a cost at the head ends which might mean the roll out is not as fast as we would all like.

Record to Video

SKY+ has one neat trick in that archiving to video is simply pushing the copy button against the programmes you want to archive and telling it to copy causes you to get a list of programmes and timings for the tape and then before each programme the synopsis is displays (the "i" screen). At the moment you can mess things up by changing channel or functions but other than that the system will make it very easy if you like to archive material to VHS.

SKY+ vs Tivo

Sky still believe there is a market for two products their pitch is that one is for SKY Digital customers and Tivo is for the rest. They believe that SKY+ is a small step in the correct direction to create a true consumer product. It is also the next step for them in their set top box development. I suspect that for many SKY Digital users there will be simple benefits to going to SKY+ and provided those benefits are worth £10 per month then SKY are onto a winner. The markets for SKY+ and Tivo are different but it will be hard for the consumer to see the difference as anything other than SKY Digital and other platforms. Tivo has a more mature software platform with sophisticated programme management that seems to be aimed at the more computer aware user. SKY+ is being aimed at everyone else.

Overall, SKY+ is not as sophisticated as Tivo, but it gains from being an integrated solution and much easier for the new / unsophisticated user. As such it is probably perfectly aimed at the target market and is likely to be a big success assuming people are not put off by the £10 per month additional subscription.

Conclusion

As a first entry into the world of PVR's I think SKY have probably got it right - it wouldn't have been my choice but for the mass market the product looks and feels like something that people will find appealing. There are lots of potential issues with early release software but if SKY do deliver regular updates and increases of functionality the vast majority of viewers will find this an excellent device.

There is still a lot that is missing in relation to a product like Tivo but success is not about having more functions or a better interface it is about delivering a working solution that the user can understand. Marketing a PVR is an interesting task for any organisation and SKY are marketing two, aimed at different markets. The gadgets and gizmos on any such device are the things that people point out but the fundamental way that a PVR changes your viewing is hard to explain to most consumers.

In a world of multi-channel TV, the sifting ability of tools like Tivo and SKY+ give the user control over their TV watching by creating a "personal TV station". SKY+ doesn't yet create suggestions but it is undoubtedly going to appear in the future. Early adopters may be disillusioned by some of the functions that are lacking from SKY+ but my guess is the general consumer will find it breathtaking.

Alan Jay