Sky iTV Sales Rival Launches

By Jones, Gareth

Sky is facing fresh competition in the interactive TV (iTV) ad market with the launch of a rival red-button service from Chellomedia.

The Liberty Global-owned firm will go head-to-head with Sky by selling the bandwidth necessary for brands to Lunch iTV campaigns on the digital-satellite platform.

Sky currently sells red-button bandwidth at 25,000 per megabit, with the-average dedicated advertiser location costing about 100,000. Chellomedia is expected to undercut this to attract new advertisers to the medium.

Sky’s dominance of the red-button market was challenged last year when technology company Emuse launched an iTV service allowing advertisers to run campaigns simultaneously across digital- satellite, digital-terrestrial and mobile platforms.

The arrival of a third iTV bandwidth provider in the market is likely to drive down costs, potentially prompting an influx of cash from big-brand advertisers keen to experiment with the medium. Price has traditionally been a barrier to entry, with the most sophisticated executions costing up to 180,000.

Commercial broadcasters have cut the cost of running iTV ad campaigns in a bid to win over sceptical FMCG and entertainment brands. Last November ITV and the Flextech/UKTV sales house both cut thousands of pounds worth of airtime-premium costs from their red- button rate cards for this year.

Chellomedia is the content division of Liberty Global. The company provides iTV applicationsand services for distribution over TV and broadband platforms across Europe.

Sky: bandwidth charges expected to be undercut by Chellomedia

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Mar 28, 2007

(c) 2007 Marketing. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.