BT is bringing back the BT TV brand, less than three years after it became EE TV. The name may be returning, but the proposition is even more familiar. BT TV is not so much a new television service as the latest iteration of a proposition that BT has been pursuing for two decades. We may have seen this movie before.
The return of BT TV follows the re-emergence of BT as a consumer brand. BT had previously designated EE as its flagship consumer brand, with BT TV becoming EE TV in 2023. BT is now once again using its longstanding name to sell broadband and other services directly to consumers.
BT Customers will have a choice of two boxes. The BT TV Box Pro combines streaming with the ability to pause and rewind live television and record over 600 hours of programming. The smaller BT TV Box Edge is intended for customers who prefer a simpler streaming experience, providing access to on-demand and catch-up programming.
Both boxes offer a single search experience across multiple services, addressing what BT sees as the increasing complexity of television as viewers navigate between live channels, streaming services and subscriptions.
“Finding something great to watch shouldn’t mean navigating a maze of apps, subscriptions and devices,” said Luciano Oliveira, the managing director of products for the consumer division of BT. “We’ve designed BT TV to bring customers’ entertainment and sport together, making it easier to find what they love, and giving them the freedom to watch live, record their favourites and catch-up when it suits them.”
“Combined with BT broadband, it gives customers a simpler, more complete connected experience from the provider they know and trust.”
It is not the first time that BT has sought to establish its brand in television.
In 2006, BT announced that its forthcoming broadband video service would be called BT Vision. It promised a combination of digital terrestrial television, broadband video on demand, catch-up television and digital video recording.
BT called it a world first combining digital terrestrial channels through an aerial with broadband video on demand. Unlike conventional pay television services, there was no mandatory monthly television subscription, although it initially required a BT Broadband connection.
The service was launched commercially in 2007, supported by a multimillion-pound marketing campaign. BT hoped to capitalise on the popularity of Freeview by adding broadband-delivered programming to free-to-air television.
BT had ambitious expectations for the service. By the end of 2007 it had 150,000 customers. BT nevertheless reiterated its longer-term ambition of between two and three million customers in what it defined as the medium term of three to five years.
Growth proved considerably slower. It took until 2014 to pass a million television customers. BT subsequently invested heavily in sports rights and rebranded BT Vision as BT TV.
The last reported figure was 1.74 million television customers. In 2018, after two consecutive quarters of decline, BT stopped reporting television subscriber numbers as a key performance indicator.
Two decades after the launch of BT Vision, the technology of television has changed substantially, but the basic consumer proposition is remarkably similar.
Then, BT offered broadband customers a box that combined broadcast television with on-demand programming delivered over an internet connection. Now it offers broadband customers a box that brings together live television, streaming services, premium programming and sport.
The new BT TV is much more clearly an internet television proposition. BT introduced an aerial-free internet mode for its Box Pro in 2022, allowing live channels to be received over broadband, although the box can still receive terrestrial television through an aerial.
That places BT TV in an increasingly interesting relationship with Freely, the internet television platform backed by the main British public service broadcasters.
Freely also offers live and on-demand television over broadband without requiring an aerial or satellite dish. Initially integrated into selected smart televisions, Freely is now also available through streaming devices that can be connected to existing television sets.
The two propositions approach the transition to internet television from different directions. Freely starts with free-to-air television and seeks to reproduce and extend that experience over broadband, independent of the internet service provider. BT TV starts with the broadband customer and seeks to make television another reason to choose and remain with BT.
That could make the commercial objectives of the second coming of BT TV rather different from those of BT Vision.
BT no longer needs to establish an entirely new television platform to compete for millions of subscribers with Sky and Virgin Media. Television can instead add value to the broadband relationship, helping BT retain customers while providing opportunities to sell entertainment, sport and other subscription services.
There is also much more competition for the role of television aggregator. Smart television operating systems routinely present multiple streaming applications and services, while Freely offers an increasingly complete internet-delivered free television proposition without tying viewers to a particular broadband provider.
So the prospects for BT TV may depend less on how many television customers it can acquire than on whether it can make BT broadband more attractive and valuable to the households that already buy it.
Twenty years ago, consumers faced a growing choice of broadcast channels, pay television and emerging broadband video services. BT proposed bringing them together in one box.
Today, they face live television, streaming applications, subscription services and sport spread across an expanding range of services and devices. BT is once again proposing to bring them together in one box.
The delivery technology has changed almost beyond recognition. The challenge of making television simple apparently has not.