Pay TV phase three document - Stakeholders - Ofcom

Pay TV phase three document – non-confidential version
� Virgin Media, created by a consolidation over 13 years of the cable franchise
areas created in 1984, culminating in the merger of NTL and Telewest in 2006,
and the subsequent re-branding in 2007 to Virgin Media. Virgin Media now has
3.7 million subscribers.
3.8 Pay TV services have also been provided on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).
ONdigital launched its service in 1998. It re-branded as ITV Digital in 2001, in an
attempt to exploit the ITV brand, but went into administration in March 2002, after
attempts to renegotiate the terms of its rights deal with the Football League failed.
The number of subscribers reached a peak of 1.2 million at the end of 2001.
3.9 Freeview was launched in 2002, using the DTT spectrum released following the
failure of ITV Digital. It provided a credible free-to-air alternative for those consumers
who wanted multi-channel TV but did not wish to pay for it. There are now 9.8 million
Freeview-only households.
3.10 The historic growth in these pay TV and free-to-air services is illustrated in Figure 2
below. It is possible to distinguish three fairly distinct periods of growth:
� Steady growth in analogue pay TV services during the 1990s, on both satellite
and cable, driven by access to premium content, and in particular the acquisition
by Sky in 1992 of exclusive rights to live Premier League football.
� The migration from analogue to digital at the end of the 1990s, greatly increasing
the range of content and value-added services that could be delivered to
subscribers.
� Over the last five years, continued growth of Sky’s satellite service and of
Freeview, alongside very limited growth on cable. The key dynamics in recent
years have been Sky, driving growth in pay TV, and Freeview, driving growth in
free-to-air multi-channel TV.
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