What They Say
Sky in Germany has said that it will support its Sky Q system over IP without subscribers needing satellite or cable subscriptions. The system provides more than 80 channels. Minimum one year subscriptions start at €12.50 per month and includes basic package Sky Entertainment. After the first year, the contract can be switched to a monthly basis. The minimum bandwidth for the Wi-fi or ethernet connections to a home router is 6Mbps, but the system will not support UltraHD or content downloading/recording.
What We Think
Sky in the UK was a big driver of DTH satellite adoption. Germany, on the other hand, had a lot of cable and FTA satellite reception. At one time, I heard a lot of scepticism about the prospects for Sky in Germany as the Germans were famous for resisting the idea of pay TV. However, much German content was ‘dry’ (to put it kindly) and consisted of talking heads at very restricted bitrates. I always thought that high quality good content would find a market in the country. (BR)
