BT selects Vision Editor

I find it really interesting that BT has placed a contract of unspecified value to a magazine publisher. This suggests a much higher level of interactivity than traditional TV programming.

Under this agreement, Future will supply BT Vision’s editorial requirements for the TV service to be launched later this year and the BT Vision online store. Future will provide news, independent reviews of entertainment and programme listings for the film, TV and music services.

Future will also support the editorial requirements of BT Vision’s interactive services as they develop, including community forums, special-interest areas and reader-generated content along with user ratings and popularity charts. Future is putting together an eleven-strong editorial team to provide these services to BT Vision.

I think BT realise that to be successful Vision needs to radically different from broadcast, cable or satellite TV.

Although I am sure there will be one or two surprises up BT’s sleeves, the current public line-up of the service, , is:

• TV - access to over 30 Freeview channels
• Entertainment on demand - a huge library of movies, comedy, music and kids shows.
• Catch-up TV – enabling viewers to watch a selection of shows they may have missed, subject to rights agreements
• Digital Video Recorder – ability to store up to 80 hours of programming without tapes, timers or disks
• Communication and converged services - instant messaging, chat and video telephony all through the TV to commence after launch.
• The BT Vision Download store

It will be interesting to see if BT has anything unique at launch time from Sky or whether price is the key differentiator. Also interesting will be to see whether the BT service is visible to more than a tiny percentage of the country.