This is all about TV over IP. In the UK we have a company called HomeChoice who are delivering TV over IP in London. They have all of our national stations, freeview (UK free digital stations) and some of Sky’s premium channels. They are also a triple play provider. BT is about to announce its IPTV partnership with Microsoft and so Sky need to find a cheaper more effective alternative to satellite. It will also allow Murdoch to finally get a reliable return path from his set-top boxes and open up the interactive/ecommerce markets. Finally it is about advertising. His Sky+ boxes are proving to successful in enabling consumers to fast forward adverts. He needs to create a new advertising platform and this is it. Own the EPG, control the content, personalise the expericence enabling personalised adverts to an IP address.

So buying a network is cheaper in the UK than building out his own network and co-locating in BT exchanges.

Just a thought …