Wednesday, September 17, 2008

BT Vision to add a Download HD Service

BT Vision has entered an agreement with NBC Universal International Television for feature films that will appear on BT Vision's HD movie download service. Current HD films will be priced at 4.96 pounds each and library titles at 2.95 pounds.

The viewer selects an HD film and it is downloaded to the V-box set-top box that comes with the BT Vision service. The viewer is charged after the film has completely downloaded and viewing has started. The film may be watched repeatedly during a 48 hour rental period.

It is good that BT is supporting HD content; however its approach is technically not much different than over the top Internet downloading. BT's access network does not have the bandwidth to support HD streaming today. BT needs to deploy VDSL or FTTH to support streamed HD. This will put at a competitive disadvantage compared to satellite and cable in the UK.

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