Feasibility Study of a Digital Platform for the delivery of UK ... - BFI

UK FILM COUNCIL
Wanadoo UK
2003 2004 2005
Broadband households 158.0 600.0 896
Source: Screen Digest
As suspected, Wanadoo UK, which also allows access to its premium and entertainment content via its open portal, will benefit from the
deals struck by parent company France Telecom. France Telecom is currently in the process of bringing all of its European fixed line,
Internet and mobile services under a single brand --- Orange --- and as such has been seeking multi-platform (and in some case multiterritory)
deals on many of the movie and television deals it signs. It is understood that Warner Bros is one studio to have already signed
an output deal with France Telecom for approximately 20 new titles a year and 50 library titles to be carried over France Telecom’s
French IPTV service MaligneTV with the potential to be made available over other platforms in the future.
Strategic Positioning
Though Wanadoo in the UK is set to greatly benefit from its relationship with France Telecom, this has yet to materialise as a consumer
proposition. The ISP can and will in due course offer a multi-platform distribution opportunity --- over the open Internet through its
portal, through a walled garden over the Livebox and via mobile through sister company Orange, which is one of the UK’s four largest
mobile operators. However, given that it has no separate Movies or TV section on its website, and currently only offers access to movie
trailers through the Entertainment section of its portal, this may be some way off. Moreover, given the parent company’s approach to
date in France, any VoD content that appears on Wanadoo will in all likelihood do so in a walled garden TV environment first via the
Livebox (using France Telecom’s Viaccess security solutions) rather than on the open Internet.
Tiscali UK
On Demand Offering
The UK arm of European ISP Tiscali has been one of the most forward-thinking in terms of providing access to mainstream and
specialised content as a means of driving market share. On one hand, the ISP has been busy building strategic relationships with third
party service providers. It currently has an alliance to promote LoveFilm’s DVDs-by-post service, which could be extended to LoveFilm’s
download-to-PC VoD service, due to launch before the end of 2005, as well as a separate deal in place with CinemaNow. Since
September 2004, the European ISP has hosted movies from the limited CinemaNow library for its customers, on both a streaming and
downloading basis.
Feasibility Study for a Digital Platform for the delivery of Independent UK films and Specialised films to the Home
UK Film Council © 2006
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