HDTV-Reviews.co.uk

Sunday, 02 July, 2006

30% of BSkyB HD boxes experience problems

BSkyB may have to reprogramme over 100,000 high-definition television boxes after it emerged that an estimated three in 10 customers are experiencing problems.

Sky and some television manufacturers are believed to have rushed out their high defintion services just in time for the World Cup, with sales of HD Ready televisions in the UK topping £250 million in May alone.

They now face angry complaints from their first wave of customers about lost sound, picture freezes and background noise, which could take “months” to sort out. Since the opinion of early adopters is vital to drive the growth of any new consumer product, this will be seen as a serious blow.

Chris Wynn, a new media analyst at Informa, said: “If Sky can resolve this quite soon, they can minimise the damage, but it’s probably more costly in terms of bad publicity.”

Sky certainly does not need any more trouble with HD television. It has already had installation hold-ups with HDTV in the run-up to the World Cup, which were caused by shortages of boxes. Even now, customers are still having to wait more than a month to make the switch.

Sky has been marketing HDTV aggressively. It is not releasing exact subscriber numbers at this stage, but they are already thought to have risen in excess of 100,000 since the May launch.

Sky insists it is only aware of a very few isolated instances of this happening with certain models of Pioneer televisions, and says it is working with the manufacturer to solve the problem. Industry sources, however, say that some other manufacturers are experiencing similar problems.

It is thought unlikely that Sky or the manufacturers will have to recall their products to fix any problems. The most likely solution will be a software upgrade that can be downloaded to customers’ homes, although it is thought that that could take several months.