Three big trends are changing our industry - the explosion of broadband, the huge expansion in the choice of TV and video channels, and the growing appetite for more storage in the home, so that content can be saved, shared, and watched again.
Many of the major developments we're undertaking at Sky are designed to position the business to take advantage of these new trends. The pace of change is quickening, and we're accelerating our own product development to match it. Part of this is about scalability and durability for the future, but even more important is flexibility - the flexibility to exploit new developments in the way that's best for the business, and best for our customers.
The acquisition of Easynet was a significant strategic step for Sky, because it meant that Sky was no longer just about satellite broadcasting, but broadband communications and telephony as well. There were nearly 10 million broadband connections in the UK by the end of 2005, a number that's projected to double by 2010. Buying Easynet gave us the opportunity to move quickly into broadband through a network that we plan to reach around 70% of the UK population by the end of 2007. Easynet's fibre optic network backbone is one of the largest and most advanced in the country, and already covers most of the major urban areas. The quality of its infrastructure also means that it is already capable of supporting video and telephony, and this gives us the basis for a powerful new service that brings together the strengths of satellite with the best of broadband. That new service is Sky Broadband, launched this summer.
What Sky Broadband gives us is the ability to bring together everything we already offer on Sky Digital with future products that broadband can offer, like internet-based telephone calls and video on demand. With Easynet's expertise and network, Sky is well positioned to create a service that offers the best of all worlds - the huge broadcast capacity of digital satellite that we already have, the two-way interactivity that Sky Broadband can offer, and massive storage capacity in the home, which builds on what we already do with Sky+. The result? A whole new standard for home entertainment. The future's already here.
