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Press release from Freesat today:

FIRST HIGH-DEFINITION EPISODE OF ‘HARLEY STREET’ TO BE BROADCAST ON ITV HD EXCLUSIVELY VIA FREESAT

Harley Street, ITV’s brand new drama series set in the world famous medical hub of the same name, premieres tonight in high-definition on ITV HD, available exclusively through the free-to-air satellite TV service, Freesat.

Viewers can access ITV HD via the ‘red button’ when prompted on screen during the programme’s transmission between 2100 - 2200hrs.

Commenting on the first HD transmission of the programme, Emma Scott, MD of Freesat said; “It’s fantastic that ITV are exclusively premiering Harley Street in HD on Freesat. This is a major new drama that I’m sure will prove popular with viewers. Harley Street is one of a range of new high definition dramas, movies and sport from ITV that will be available for free on Freesat this year. This is brilliant news for Freesat customers.”

Thanks to those of you concerned enough by our lack of updates in a few days, we are still here, but to be honest, not a lot of happening, everything seems to have come to a standstill with Freesat. However, we do have calls in to both Humax PR and Freesat PR for various updates, mainly focused around more information on the Humax PVR availability/price, plus when the regional channels and further FTA channels will be added. These seem to be the most pressing questions, so lets hope for some good news at the start of the week.

The silence from all parties over the past week might also be down to the fact that the key players at Humax, Freesat, Freesat’s PR agency, Alba and Panasonic have all been on holiday for a week or so; we suspect not togeather though! We’ll be back with updates as soon as we can.

Richard Lindsey-Davis, Commercial Development Director at Freesat, spoke of Freesat problems during the annual BADA Conference (British Audio/Visual Dealers Association).

It was admitted that “We have not been able to get enough set top boxes and Freesat TVs to meet demand”, although we of course already knew this from the number of problems consumers had in the first few weeks of launch.

Richard also said that Alba Group high definition boxes were delayed due to picture quality issues, “the standard definition picture was so awful”, “The standard definition output on the Alba boxes wasn’t as good as it should be or as good as that on the Humax box”, “Alba is trying to improve it. It wasn’t something they’d thought about; they assumed people wouldn’t use it.” (no mention of Humax’s poor picture quality?!?!)

Its been confirm that a further three Freesat IDTV’s are due from Panasonic later this year, although we are unsure at this stage what size ranges these will cover. It was also mentioned that Richard is in discussion with other manufacturers including Samsung, Toshiba and Sony about manufacturing Freesat models to improve the supply situation now and in the future.

Nothing really exciting, but Borkowski have now taken over from Firefly as Freesat’s new PR agency. Firefly had a six month contract for the launch. Will be interesting to see how Borkowski manage public relations going forward.

An interesting read regarding Virgin leading commercial radio stations onto Freesat

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/…/virgin_leads_commercial_stations_onto_freesat

The main points worth mentioning: Virgin, as well as NME Radio, GCap’s Xfm, Choice, Gold and Capital Classic will be available on Freesat between July and September; and later this year, Insight Radio, British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) Radio and four stations run by Irish broadcaster RTE: Lyric FM, Radio 1, Radio na Gaeltachta and 2FM.

Emma Scott (Managing Director, Freesat) also makes mention to the release of the Freesat DTR later this year, and its ability to record and series link radio programmes, in the same way as you will be able to television programmes.

Thought it was about time we started a new poll. Thanks for all those that participated in the last one, which is still available in the poll archive.

This time we’d like to know what Freesat digital box or integrated receiver you already have. Whilst it won’t give an accurate measure of viewing figures etc, it will give an amazing insight into which Freesat digital boxes are selling more than others.

Get involved, vote on the left hand column.

(if you have any ideas of a poll we can run, let us know, with thousands of votes, its a great tool to take advantage of).

The BBC have released a statement to confirm that no BBC Interactive services will be available to allow “multiple match” during Wimbledon.

BBCi - the BBC’s interactive service on Freesat - currently offers News, Sport, Business, Entertainment, Lottery Results, Weather forecasts and maps. Currently no video services are available, with interactive services to be launched in a phased manner. These video services will not be ready in time for Wimbledon 2008 or any non-sport interactive services like Glastonbury or the Proms. BBCi will however be providing a full, video-based Sport Multiscreen service for the Olympics. As the BBC’s interactive services for Freesat evolve throughout 2008, further updates will be made available and publicised in due course.

The BBC Interactive services are however available on Sky and Freeview.

We are pleased to say that our chat went ahead with Freesat as planned, so thank you to Helen at fireflycomms for arranging, and to Janet Morrow for giving us such a large allocation of time.

Janet Morrow works for Freesat in the capacity of communications. Janet is actually employed and works for the BBC, but has been seconded to Freesat part-time to assist in ensuring accurate information is available to the public domain. Whilst the information we can give is more ‘fact’ than ‘exclusive news’, it does at least settle a few debates and was a very worthwhile conversation. Janet spent as much time going through each question as we needed, going into more detail than asked at times so we very much appreciate it.

Rather than a Q&A, we’ll just give the information as points:

Hardware

The first DTR/PVR receivers should be available in the autumn of this year. Speculation of delays meaning an end of 2008 / early 2009 release are totally unfounded. Humax are the only manufacturer of the DTR/PVR receiver, Alba Group and Panasonic are not involved (very interesting).

No other company (including Pace) are signed up to manufacture Freesat boxes at this time, but naturally if any discussions are happening, they couldn’t be discussed at this time. The question over whether Humax and Alba Group have an exclusivity agreement is being found out for us.

Channels

There is no truth in software issues being the reason for delays in the launch of regional ITV channels or additional FTA channels. Freesat want to make it very clear that because this is the first batch of channels since launch, they are taking extra care to ensure that everything goes technically smooth, as obviously this is now a live product.

All ITV regions and additional FTA channels (including but not limited to, ITV2+1, Film Four+1, E4+1 and More4+1, Zone Horror, Zone Reality, Kix and BET as well as digital radio stations including Capital Radio, Virgin Radio and XFM) will be available late July 2008.

Freesat confirmed and openly wish to make clear that an EPG slot on Freesat is £30,000 per year for TV channels and £5,000 per year for Radio channels.

We asked whether empty channels such as 109 and 110 are pre-allocated, or whether it’s a first come first serve basis. Janet was unsure and will find out, but suspects they may be pre-allocated to ensure that specific genres are placed within certain channel ranges.

Freesat still believe that close to 200 channels will be available by the end of the year. They couldn’t comment on whether any FTA channels (other than those mentioned above) are signed up already, only that discussions are taking place.

It’s not Freesat’s intention to mirror Freeview’s channels in any way. They treat digital terrestrial and digital satellite as two very different platforms as different regulations and agreements are in place. They know that gaining existing subscription channels like Dave, UK History etc will be almost impossible due to the way in which they are funded.

Freesat’s official statement on channel FIVE being available on the platform is “definatly in 2008″. Whilst Freesat didn’t comment, FIVE has said that FIVER and FIVE US won’t be.

Freesat have no indication of if/when C4 HD will be available on the platform. Given that they’ve made it clear that FIVE will be on Freesat this year, it would suggest that C4 HD hasn’t been agreed, or won’t happen this year. They couldn’t comment on C4 HD’s existing Sky contract or the reasons why C4 HD have not created a duplicate channel in the same way as C4. They do however see C4 HD as an important addition to the Freesat platform, as the more HD content the better.

We really needed to speak to the broadcasters directly, but Freesat’s understanding of the further production of HD content from BBC HD and ITV HD is ongoing. BBC HD will have 300 hours of Olympics this summer, as well as Wimbledon. ITV HD have said they will start with major sporting events (i.e. Euro 2008), followed within 2008 by premium movies and premium dramas.

Alba Group’s lack of ‘add channel’ functionality is not the responsibility of Freesat, nor was it requested as part of Freesat’s original tech spec. They are however working closely with Alba Group to ensure that this is implemented within the next few weeks. Both parties are aware of the EU regulations to provide, and are working to resolve.

We asked when ITV HD will be available in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Freesat say soon, but must stress that the decision to incorporate ITV HD was given to all ITV companies, of which both NI and Scotland chose not to accept.

Whilst Freesat wouldn’t say never, they did say that ITV HD must remain an interactive service, not a full channel. The official statement given to Freesat by ITV was that regulations mean that ITV HD as an individual channel is not commercially viable. Freesat are going to find out more on this, as they were only provided a single line statement. Freesat are adamant that ITV HD has launched as an interactive service for this very reason, and not to offer Freesat a HD advantage over Sky to encourage its early day uptake.

General

Freesat will continue to allow Sky to use the word “freesat” in their promotions of their own free service. They do not believe that both platforms using the name will cause any confusion (this is a point we may need to blog separately about at a later date once Freesat has been in the market for 6 months or so).

Freesat do not see their service as overtaking or replacing Freeview, nor as a competitor to Sky; they see it as a choice for the general consumer.

No official figures on the uptake of Freesat are available. Any indications given on the web are pure guess work.

Freesat are not aware of an issue with emailing visitors to their old site who wanted updates on the release. We explained that there must be thousands who didn’t receive and only a handful that did. They are going to find out for us.

Another burning question we and many of you wanted to know was what advertising is in place, or will be in place to promote Freesat to the masses. The answer in no uncertain terms was not very much. However, Janet did explain the reasons why. Freesat have a very small marketing budget which doesn’t allow them enough funds to promote the service in its own right via television media. They are promoting on radio and in national press, but are relying on associated companies like retailers etc to put the brand name across. Freesat made particular mention to Panasonic and their efforts to promote not only their new plasma’s, but the Freesat service associated with them. Its Freesat’s intention with the small budget they have to focus on areas where Freeview (terrestrial digital) signal is not available, which is why recent promotions in Wales have taken place, including 10% discounts at Comet etc. Anglia is next for promotional work. ITV television advertising is too expensive, and BBC is unable to promote the Freesat brand due to their unbiased policy. Whilst BBC mention Freesat as part of their recent BBC HD advertisement campaign, they must also mention all other available platforms fairly. Freesat wanted to make clear that Sky’s recent Sky+ campaign likely cost more to advertise than Freesat’s entire annual budget…for everything.

Whilst no breaking news, at least a few points have been clarified which should ease doubts and concerns. Janet was keen to point out that they are working hard to develop the service, and whilst it seems like a long time, it’s only been 6 weeks since launch and its very early days.

Again, we’d like to thank Janet for the time spent talking to us.

Could we just ask that if you mention any of the above on other sites, forums etc that you make reference to joinfreesat.co.uk, so the appropriate recognition is given. Thanks.

Freesat have kindly allowed us to publish the speech Emma Scott (Managing Director, Freesat) made at the Broadcast Digital Channels Conference 2008 on Thursday 12 June 2008. It covers much of what we know, but is a worthwhile read. Please note that this has not been checked against the actually delivery, although its said to be the same.

Freesat launched five weeks ago so perhaps it’s early days to be standing up here and telling you the ‘story’ of Freesat – we simply haven’t done enough yet to warrant great tomes.

But what I can do is explain what Freesat is, why it’s here, who it’s for, about its place in the digital landscape and answer some of the questions raised since launch.

So what is Freesat? Well it’s a simple way to get guaranteed subscription free digital television. It’s available across the whole of the UK – with around 98% coverage of households, and it’s a great way to get subscription free high definition channels and services. And as the mantra goes, you get Freesat through a one off payment for equipment – and then it’s no contract, no subscription, ever.

Freesat is backed by the BBC and ITV and the Freesat company is run as a joint venture. We’re not for profit and the money we generate from shareholder contributions and income from listings is put back into the business. We don’t make or sell receivers ourselves – manufacturers and retailers do that – but what we do is manage the technical platform, receiver testing and an Electronic Programme Guide – and we promote and market the Freesat service to consumers, supporting people before and after they buy with a call centre and website.

Freesat launched at the beginning of May with over 80 digital services – TV, radio and interactive – and by the end of this year we should be heading for up to 200 channels. Channels range from the ever popular BBC, ITV and C4 digital portfolio services, such as BBC3, ITV2 and e4, through to up and coming TV services from companies like CSC Media, who own a large number of free to air digital satellite channels – offering movies through to children’s and entertainment. And then at the other end of the spectrum we have a number of niche interest channels from B4U, a Bollywood music channel, through to Euronews with its seven different language news service (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian).

So far, so good you might be saying. More channels and better coverage – but so what, why would I bother getting it?

Well in addition Freesat offers two high definition services – BBC HD and, launched just last Saturday night, ITV HD – both available for free, once you buy the Freesat HD equipment.

Both of these services are quintessentially public service – in that between them something for everyone.

From the BBC there’s high end drama like Florence Nightingale and The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, new British comedy in Gavin and Stacey, major sporting events that unite the nation like the Olympics and beautiful documentaries like Wild China.

The BBC HD service offers the jewels in the BBC’s crown in stunning high definition and, increasingly, in surround sound. ITV HD will offer its Euro 2008 matches, Champions League, FA Cup and England World Cup Qualifiers in HD and, later in the year, landmark dramas and blockbuster films shown in their true glory.

And for many people it will be high definition programmes, on a no strings attached basis, which I believe will tip them into taking Freesat above other services.

But why do we need another TV service even if it has free HD? Let’s look at some of the most common questions about Freesat that people have asked since launch:

Why do we need another digital service when there’s only 2.5m homes left to convert?
Digital penetration is already at about 90%, so who needs another digital platform? Well, the other 10% of homes for a start - those who haven’t chosen to go digital yet.

In addition, that 90% figure is based on primary sets so there are still around 20 million second sets to convert.

And don’t forget 27% of UK households (over 6m households) can’t currently get Freeview, so those homes don’t have a simple, guaranteed subscription free option to convert. The launch of Freesat is great news for them. Don’t underestimate that appeal.

Is HD really relevant?
HD’s been talked about for ages and never really taken off, people claim. But only now with Freesat is it truly free for anyone who wants it.

There are already over 10m HD ready TV sets in homes across the UK but, at the time of Freesat’s launch, only around 5% of those HD ready homes were actually watching television programmes in high definition – and by subscription.

Look at how HD has taken off in the US where something like 35% of homes now watch in HD – and research shows those audiences are increasingly loyal to the networks they watch on and hunt out HD programming, even if they wouldn’t normally watch the genre.

And with 1m Sony Playstation3s and an increasing number of BluRay players sold – both of which allow you to watch HD content via an HD ready TV – there are an increasing number of homes who will never want to switch back to just normal, ‘standard’ definition content.

In fact we know consumers and retailers want HD content– but it’s the broadcasters that have taken a while to catch up.

Free HD is a long term opportunity for broadcasters and for Freesat. HD is not a gimmick, it’s a new standard for television and one which every broadcaster I’ve met would love to deliver its content in.

I do not believe that HD will remain a long term income driver for pay platform operators – consumers will resent paying for something they see as the ‘new normal’ television if it isn’t premium sport and movies, which they already ‘expect’ to pay for.

Do people really want free TV?
Well, take a look at the notion of ‘Freeconomics’, the theory being that, in a world of digital abundance, consumers increasingly want more things for free.

Some observers have remarked on the emerging trend of an increasing number of companies giving consumers access to products and services for free as a result of improvements in technology. These improvements mean that the cost of previously scarce commodities such as storage, bandwidth and processing capability is reducing at a dramatic rate.

Examples include:
GMail - hard drive storage has become so abundant that they give users 2 GB of mail for free.

You-Tube – everyone showing the world what happens when there’s an infinite set of channels available.

Skype – IP technology allows Skype to bypass the requirement for traditional networks – but they still have a viable business model and offer free calls.

And in broadcasting, the success of Freeview has demonstrated the power of the free offering and Freesat hopes to emulate and build on this success.

And as we enter a period of economic uncertainty and even recession, some consumers are going to start feeling the pinch meaning that free propositions will increasingly come into their own, faced with the alternative of costly monthly subscriptions.

How good does Freesat have to be to really compete?
It has to be very good.

We know people like the ‘free’ concept. The British public are intelligent and discerning consumers. Freecomonics already proves that there are an awful lot of people out there who are happy with free TV. Freesat takes that concept a step further – with free HD, IP capability to deliver iPlayer and Kangaroo in the short term and more content and innovation over time.

So, in a world where there is widespread availability of digital technology, consumers increasingly expect their media for free.

But just being free isn’t enough for Freesat. Freesat will be the best of free, and is only going to get bigger and better.

Kind of a pointless post, but not much is happening in Freesat world this week.

We sent a message over to Freesat’s PR company last week requesting answers to the burning questions, as customers and potential customers are starting to get impatient at the lack of news and advertising from Freesat.

We asked about regional channels, channel Five, PVR’s, planned improvements for HD channels, further channels to be added this year, iplayer, advertising strategy to name but a few.

So far we’ve had a reply back from the PR company (fireflycomms) last Friday to say they are working on our request with Freesat and would be in touch Monday. Nothing yet so we contacted them again this morning to be told they are chasing.

We really hope that they are genuinely going to answer some of our questions. Now we appreciate that some can’t be answered, but reasoning behind why is the least we can expect. This blog receives more visitors per day than any other Freesat related site (other than Freesat’s very own site) so we feel you guys and gals have a right to know whats what.

We’ll keep you all posted, fingers crossed!