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Sky Movies will be replaced by Sky Cinema this July, introducing better HD at no extra cost and more films than ever before
Sky wants BT ripped apart for broadband failures
Sky is pushing for BT to be ripped in two, after accusing its rival of failing to repair and install new broadband lines promptly. Sky wants Openreach – the division of BT that manages the broadband and telephone network – separated from BT Retail, to ensure that BT doesn’t favour its own retail division when it comes to repairs.
Sky claims that Openreach misses more than 500 appointments a month to install new lines for Sky customers, and fails to complete a further 4,000 jobs per month, according to a report in the Financial Times. Sky also claims that fault rates across the Openreach network increased by half between 2009 and 2012 – the last year for which figures were made publicly available.
Sky claims that BT is underinvesting in Openreach and giving its own Retail division preferential treatment when it comes to repairs and installations, an accusation that BT has long denied. Sky wants Ofcom to force BT to spin-off Openreach, creating two different companies.
The proposal comes in Sky’s formal submission to regulator Ofcom’s regular review of the digital communications market. “We are drawing attention to the problems in broadband because they are important to the economy as a whole,” Sky’s chief strategy officer, Mai Fyfield, told the FT. “They affect competition between providers and have a direct impact on consumers and small businesses, resulting in inconvenience, dissatisfaction and loss of productivity.”
Sky’s intervention comes as BT faces enormous regulatory scrutiny, as it attempts to push through its £12 billion takeover of EE. That takeover is currently subject to an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, and has also raised concerns that BT will favour EE over other mobile providers by giving its own network cheaper access to the bandwidth required for mobile data services.
BT told the FT that it was “disappointing that Sky are engaging in selective spin rather than constructive dialogue”, and that splitting Openreach from the rest of the company would “lead to huge uncertainty and fundamentally undermine the case for future investment”.
Sky app to stop kids sneaking a glimpse of Game of Thrones – 29/6
Sky is planning to launch a video-on-demand app geared specifically towards children, reducing the risk of the kids accidentally (or otherwise) watching something they shouldn’t. The app is expected to launch early next year and will include a variety of parental controls.
Currently, Sky’s kids programming is delivered through the same Sky Go app as the rest of its shows. That means kids watching Peppa Pig on a parent’s tablet or smartphone are just a few clicks away from shows such as Game of Thrones and True Detective, which both contain scenes that even the most liberal of parents would agree are unsuitable for minors. That adds an unwanted element of risk to handing the tablet over to young children.
The new app will be aimed at children aged 4-9, and will collate all the on-demand programming from channels such as Nickleodeon, The Cartoon Network and Disney. Even though it will only show child-friendly programmes, parents can still filter what’s available to their children. The app will include bedtime settings, preventing kids from sneaking a tablet upstairs to watch Ben ans Holly under the duvet. Sky says the app will also let parents “understand what their child has been watching” – which presumably means some kind of viewing history will be available to parents.
“We want kids to have access to all their favourite shows when and on whatever device they want, in a way that parents know is creative, engaging but ultimately, safe,” says Stephen van Rooyen, chief marketing and digital officer at Sky. “Sky has always focused on providing great entertainment for the whole family which is why we are continuing to invest in what we offer the youngest members of the household.”
Sky’s approach differs somewhat from rival Netflix. The streaming media service gives kids their own account within the same app, which hides away all the adult content, such as the potential counselling sessions awaiting kids who watch a few minutes of Breaking Bad. However, the Netflix app also relies on the child’s honesty – there’s no PIN or other security measure to prevent kids from accessing mum and dad’s profile. With Sky’s separate apps, device-level parental controls could be used to bar access to the adult app.