Broadcasters and channel owners could be pursuing the wrong technologies to attract new customers, which may spell trouble for Freeview and IPTV companies.
Broadcasters and channel owners could be pursuing the wrong technologies to attract new customers, which may spell trouble for Freeview and IPTV companies.

Higher quality sound and pictures have been rated as being a more attractive proposition than video on demand (VoD) or digital video recorders (DVR) such as Sky+ or Tivo, according to a recent study by Jupiter Research.

Among those with no cable or satellite subscriptions, a quarter of the people questioned across Europe said that a service such as HDTV would make them switch to digital TV. Only 10% said VoD or DVR services would convert them.

While Sky is launching a high-def package next year, HDTV could be more of problem for IPTV and Freeview where the question will be whether it is possible to deliver high-definition sound and pictures on available bandwidth.