Video On Demand for Sky
Media Guardian: Film and football spearhead Sky broadband launch
Obviously the cablecos didn't move fast enough - Sky's now on the video on demand trail and lets face it, so far there hasn't been a single battle that the cablecos have won against Sky.
That said, Sky's video on demand offering appears to lack one obvious thing - connection through the set top box. The whole service will be PC based and unless the viewer connects their PC to their TV, viewing will have to be done via the monitor. A broadband connection will also be needed - paid for separately.
In a way it's a rather surprising entrance into the video on demand market by Sky - and there's a question whether Sky have actually thought this through. Has this announcement just been rushed out because they're worried by lure of video on demand. Do they really think that enough people would wander off to the cablecos just because they can get a film instantly instead of waiting ten minutes to watch it on Sky? And if they are worried, will the prospect of being able to watch films instantly via a PC do much to help keep people?
Or maybe it's something else. A dabble at getting the systems up and running, experimenting with a small user base before doing something else.
Only time will tell.
