Pay-TV digital terrestrial service Top Up TV launches

by Jules Grant,, Brand Republic 09-Feb-04, 11:00

LONDON - UK Gold, E4, Discovery and Richard Desmond's Fantasy Channel are some of the channels available on today's launch of Top Up TV, which will piggyback on the Freeview service.

Founders and former BSkyB executives David Chance and Ian West are joined by Matthew Seaman, the former Sky executive who quit his role as general manager of the BBC-backed Freeview last week, to head up the service.

The business will be different from ITV Digital, which Chance was hired to review months before its closure. It will be able to piggyback on the investment made by ITV Digital and the 1m potential customers with set-top boxes that have a slot for a pay-TV card, which will be Top Up TV's initial market.

The rest of Top Up TV's customers will derive from the increasing popularity of Freeview. The channel will also offer Bloomberg and Turner Classic Movies among others.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Chance said: "Our marketing approach is to convert the growing number of Freeview customers. We want them to get a box primarily because of Freeview and then we give them this opportunity to get a few more channels for a very modest sum."

The service also aims to be low-cost and will employ fewer than 10 staff, compared with the 1,500 who worked for ITV Digital. It will also slash overheads by outsourcing its call centre function. At around £7.99 a month, its package costs less than Sky's cheapest £13.50 a month package. It aims to break even with 250,000 subscribers

Andy Duncan, director of marketing and communications at the BBC, insists that the service is separate from Freeview's offering. "It is a separate company. Freeview will offer free channels and it is really a competitor to Sky and cable. I think there are some people who will want to take that route," he said.

Freeview, a joint venture between the BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle, offers 30 free digital TV channels including BBC News 24, BBC Three, BBC Four, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News, and more than 20 digital radio stations.

Since its launch on October 31 2002, industry estimates show that Freeview will be in 3m homes by the end of the month and that figure looks set to rise at a steady rate.

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