Sky announces details of proposed new entertainment and communications service

[NewsreadeR]

Picnic to offer flexible broadband, phone and TV

Sky has today announced further details of its plans to offer broadband, telephone and digital terrestrial television services under an entirely new brand to customers across the UK. The new business will operate under the Picnic brand and will offer customers a variety of simple, flexible options to combine the services that they want.

Building on the success of Sky TV, Sky Broadband and Sky Talk, Picnic will offer customers an easy way to benefit from value and innovation in home communications and entertainment. It will take advantage of Sky's capabilities in areas such as marketing, content and customer service and its existing infrastructure including an unbundled telecoms network that reaches 70% of UK households.

Key features of Picnic will include:

TV, broadband and telephony
Choose 1, 2 or 3 services in any combination
Transparent prices and great value
Fast broadband access with up to 16 Mbps download speeds
Money-saving call packages
Instant access to improved TV choice through an aerial
Popular channels including Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One, a children's channel and a factual channel.
Access to Freeview channels
Sky believes that Picnic represents an attractive commercial opportunity; expanding its addressable market, complementing its existing offering and generating a healthy financial return.

The decision to proceed with the launch of Picnic is subject to the outcome of Ofcom's review of the proposed increased choice of TV programming. Ofcom has said that it plans to launch a consultation on the initial licence changes later this autumn.

Customers will access the Picnic TV service through a new generation of digital set-top boxes. The new boxes will help to lead future innovations on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform such as the adoption of MPEG-4 compression standards, which allow viewers to benefit from an increased choice of channels. The Picnic TV service will initially consist of 3 MPEG-2 video streams but, subject to approval by Ofcom, Picnic aims to move to MPEG-4 and add a fourth channel dedicated to Sky News.

Continuing with the existing "horizontal market" model for DTT equipment, the Picnic compatible boxes will be produced by multiple manufacturers and sold by a variety of retailers. Manufacturers will be responsible for the specification of their boxes and will decide which additional features to include, such as PVR functionality or the ability to receive pay-TV services from other providers. Picnic does not intend to subsidise the boxes and retailers will be responsible for setting prices, which will therefore be the same for customers who subscribe at the time of purchase and for those who want the ability to upgrade in the future.

The initial manufacturer will be Sagem and it is expected that others will follow shortly after launch. In addition, Picnic aims to make its TV service available on future generations of PCs.

Picnic will announce further details about its services closer to launch. These will include the simple and flexible pricing options, full channel line-up and details of the broadband and telephone products.

James Murdoch, Sky's Chief Executive, said:

"The launch of Picnic will be a big step forward for customers who are hungry for value and simplicity. We are looking forward to the conclusion of the regulatory approval process so we can get going delivering a great service and real savings to customers."

For more news about Picnic, customers can register their interest at Sky Picnic" .

[murdock]

Curiouser...

Sky prepares a Picnic | Broadcast | MediaGuardian.co.uk


...and curiouser

Virgin hoping to take on Sky with launch of new channel - Times Online


And then there's Freeview from a satellite
in the first half of 2008.

Freesat from the BBC, ITV & Channel Four

[murdock]

"Virgin Media were more upset at the loss of Sky’s sports news channel and that he will plug that gap with the launch of his own sports service in partnership with Setanta.
A proposed sale of Virgin Media, which has a £4 billion market value, was postponed during recent upheaval on the stock market. Sir Richard said that he may keep his 10 per cent stake in the company, should it be sold, and would not expect any future owner to remove the Virgin branding." - Times Online


What happens to Sky Sports News and who will
set up rival services is still an important part of the
puzzle that is missing.
I think I read on this site that Sky are planning to
withdraw Sky Sports News from Freeview.
If true, watch the fur fly and new channels spring up.
Is there currently a rival service to SSN?
There is certainly a surfeit of channels like Virgin1.

[Keiran2K8]

So I take it these services are going to run off the current LLU network.
So, If the current LLU network (My exchange as an example) is current out of space, I take it that is a NO-NO to Picnic aswell?

Also, How does this effect the Sky Broadband peeps, If the TV side does get a go-ahead and then there is alot more usage wont it affect the service the current users get (Cramming as many as they can on the same exchange)

[Perseus]

The broadband will run off the same Easynet LLU network, yes.
Sky re-commissions exchanges all the time expanding the capacity by adding additional cards or entire DSLAMs. Depending on demand, Sky should be increasing capacity accordingly. At this stage it's unclear whether pre-registration will gauge the demand for expansion or whether exchanges in densly poulated areas, which have reached capacity, will be automatically expanded.