YouView from BT : Interview
BT launched its new YouView from BT service in October 2012. To find out what the service offers, we spoke to Francesca Mahoney at BT to get the full story. Here is a transcript of our feature from Show 81.
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Listen our feature from FrequencyCast Show 81 - YouView from BT (Interview)
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YouView Explored:
YouView combines Freeview, a digital recorder and on-demand content. Rather than paying £300 for a YouView box, you might want to get one for free from your Broadband provider. Here's our feature from Show 81 where we spoke to BT Vision's Head of Acquision, Francesca Mahoney.
Pete:
The first thing we're going to talk about today is the newest digital TV service in the UK, which of course, Kelly, is:
Kelly:
Pete:
Spot on. Now Kelly, what do you know about YouView?
Kelly:
YouView is basically like a Freeview box, but it offers a little bit more, so you can still get all of your iPlayers basically from the box, and you can watch it on your TV.
Pete:
OK, so you're absolutely correct - it's basically Freeview, with a hard disk recorder, which is the key bit, so you can record loads of hours of telly on this particular box, and of course, this rather clever little programme guide. Now, you've got the seven days in the future programme guide, and you can go in and do series link, and all that kind of stuff. I've actually played with one of these - they're rather nice, and you can scroll back, and play things that were on TV a few days ago.
Kelly:
But you can also do that on your standard iPlayer?
Pete:
But there is something to be said about having everything in one interface, so you don't have to turn the telly off, plug in your iPad, watch the programmes that way, and also you don't have to keep switching between services. Have I sold you yet?
Kelly:
You haven't sold me. I mean, I understand its benefits in that respect.
Pete:
OK, well, if I were to tell you, it's a high-capacity hard disk recorder, and it records all the Freeview channels, and also it has Now TV.
Humax YouView box, available from Amazon, or free from BT
Kelly:
You have to pay for that, don't you?
Pete:
Ah, you do. Now TV is Sky's sort of equivalent of things like Netflix and LoveFilm, where you can get the on-demand movies from Sky, and if you're into your movies, it's still cheaper than maybe signing up to a Sky subscription. Is that possibly selling you at all?
Kelly:
If it was nice and cheap, for the convenience, then why not?
Pete:
OK, £299.
Kelly:
Absolutely not!
Pete:
Yes, if actually want to buy the standalone box, you want to pop down to your Currys or your Comet. It is £299 for the box, but of course no subscription, which kind of helps. The alternative, though, is to go with an internet service provider, and there are two: TalkTalk and BT. Now, TalkTalk, their service gives you a free box, saving £299.
Kelly:
I can understand that working for people on TalkTalk.
Pete:
Yeah, agreed. The alternative is to go with BT. Now, BT has just launched its YouView service a couple of days ago, and we caught up with Francesca Mahoney, who is the Head of Acquisitions for BT Vision, to find out what their service is all about.
Francesca:
YouView from BT launched, as you said, on 26th October, and with the service you get over 70 digital Freeview channels, as well as four HD, so for the first time we are now offering HD channels through BT. Also with YouView from BT, you'd get access to the biggest library of video-on-demand on YouView, and that includes exclusively HD blockbuster movies, as well as music videos. With those music videos, you can create your own playlists.
Pete:
Yes, actually the playlist feature's rather nice - I've been playing around with the music channel and the kids' tv channel playlists, so that is a nice little feature.
Francesca:
So yes, this is a new feature to BT, so YouView from BT will enable you to do your own playlists in music and kids, as you said, so it's a great, great feature. I'm pleased you've been playing with it, because I play with it all the time.
Pete:
And I'm very impressed with the video-on-demand service - no stutters, no judders. What's the actual minimum broadband speed, to use this new service?
Francesca:
So the minimum broadband speed that we recommend is 2.1 megs for your normal catch-up and normal on-demand service, but if you do want to watch an HD movie, because it's actually streamed and it's not downloaded and played, we recommend a minimum line speed of five megs.
Pete:
So who is the YouView service from BT actually aimed at, would you say?
Francesca:
At the moment, it's aimed more at the Freeview upgrader market, so we have a huge amount of Freeview customers in the UK - it's about over eight million customers. If they are interested in getting more out of their TV service, then they can upgrade to YouView, get all of these features, like on-demand, like HD channels, for not much that more extra per month, so they can almost stick their toe in the water, to experience a much better TV experience and service, without paying a huge amount per month.
Pete:
Now, of course, BT's already got the BT Vision service, which I think's been around for four or five years now. How does YouView differ from the existing BT Vision service?
Francesca:
There's a lot of similarities between the service, in terms of, you still get the same amount of Freeview channels. The difference within the channel line up is the HD one, which I've just touched upon, so there's four HD channels that are available on YouView from BT, and not on the Vision 2.0 service. The other major difference at the moment is, Sky Sports isn't available on YouView from BT. We are working really closely with YouView, and plan to launch channels over IP later on in 2013.
Pete:
OK, so if I've got that correct, the existing BT Vision service doesn't offer HD, but it does offer the Sky Sports channels. The new YouView service does offer all the HD Freeview channels, but doesn't quite offer the Sky Sports channels yet - is that correct?
Francesca:
Yeah, that's correct. We don't yet offer the Sky Sports channels, but they will be coming later on in 2013.
Pete:
Now, of course, YouView's been around for a couple of months now, and it does offer some rather handy little tools, including things like changes to the electronic programme guide. Could you just give me a quick summary of some of the features of YouView itself?
Francesca:
One is the scroll back guide. We basically put catch-up TV back where it should be, on your TV, so instead of going iPlayer on your laptop, or on your mobile phone, what you can do is actually scroll back in the guide, and see all of the TV programmes that you've missed and that are available, and just with one click, it will open straight away for you. So, for example, if you wanted to watch something on BBC, instead of going into the iPlayer, and searching for the specific programme, you'd literally just scroll back with the rewind button on your YouView remote control, get to the right day, and then click OK, or click play, and it will play the asset straight away for you, so that's a really great, quick, easy way to get access to your catch-up TV.
Pete:
And I must admit, I have given that a try. It's so much easier than going out of the normal TV interface, firing up iPlayer, watching what you want, and then struggling back to the menu, so it is very nice to have that all in one place.
Francesca:
Yeah, it's great. We've had some really positive feedback on that feature. The other one also that we've had lots of positive feedback on is the search tool. So you can search by title, and as you search by title, it actually gives you suggestions as you go, so you don't have to type it all in. You can also search by genre, so for example, if I wanted to watch a comedy programme, it would give me options for comedy programmes, not only just from one content provider, so not, for example, just from Channel 4 or just from ITV; it would actually search across all of the different content providers, so BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, as well as BT Vision.
Pete:
What I have noticed about the YouView service is, there's several different ways of getting into the content, so you do have the search option that you mentioned. You can also go through the on-demand screen, and find it in various different categories. The really handy bit for me is the player screen, where you can actually get to all of the different players, such as the BBC iPlayer, and of course, BT Vision. Would you mind just telling us a little bit more about those players?
Francesca:
Absolutely. This is a really exciting feature of YouView, and this is where the product is only going to get bigger and better and stronger, as more and more content providers come on board. So as you said, at the moment there's the BBC iPlayer, there's ITV, so there's the three players. There's also the paid-for players, such as BT Vision, as well as Now TV, and we are looking forward to much more content providers coming on board, giving our customers access to a huge range of TV content.
Pete:
Excellent, and if someone wants to get hold of YouView from BT, how do they go about doing it? I know if you pop down to the high street for a YouView box, you'd be looking at about £300, but you've got a rather better deal than that?
Francesca:
Yes, we have. It's great news for our customers, because you can get a free YouView box with YouView from BT when you pay a £49 activation fee, and a delivery charge, so you can have, as you said, a significant saving when you come to BT for YouView. It's available to buy on the internet, as well as through our call centres, so on the telephone as well.
Pete:
Excellent, and of course, without saying too much, there's a few exciting things in the pipeline, aren't there?
Francesca:
There are. It's very much stage one of a really transformational period with TV from BT, so there's only bigger and better things to come.
Pete:
And for more information on YouView from BT, and some screen shots, go to our website. The address is:
Kelly:
www.frequencycast.co.uk.
Transcript continues: Destination Star Trek London
Listen our feature from FrequencyCast Show 81 - YouView from BT (Interview) |
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