converging media, enabling business Consulting Group [tbb\ *] thebrainbehind Kaulbachstrasse 36 80539 Munich / Germany phone: +49.89.890 508 10 e-mail: sb@thebrainbehind.com PayMedia Consulting Group 97 Pages Walk London SE1 4HD / United Kingdom phone: +44.207.231 1244 e-mail: [email protected] Strategic PayTV Marketing Monitor Strategic PayTV Marketing Monitor: Premiere HD vs. T-Home HD Allthough press releases announce constantly rising numbers of HD ready flat screens sold (not only in Germany), TV channels from both the free and PayTV world are still very careful with announcements when more channels will be broadcasted in High Definition. Some months ago, Pro7Sat1 group announced to pause their HD broadcasts at least until 2010 (in order to save money in a phase of sinking ad revenues and financial turmoil within the company), while the public broadcasters had always stated that it will take time to equip their backends and production facilities with the technology needed. So there are currently only three channels available in HD: Premiere HD, Discovery HD and Anixe HD, but High Definition is still often a part of marketing campaigns of several platforms in Germany. The current SMM issue will show the very differing approaches of Premiere and Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom builds the current autumn campaign of the IPTV platform T-Home Entertain once again around the PVR MR 300. Other than the summer marketing campaign that concentrated on the time shifted TV option, the current campaign puts the slogan HD enabled in the spotlight (and of course, the fact that subscribers get the PVR for free). We have to admit that Deutsche Telekom still mentions additional technical characteristics like the 160 GB HDD or the time shift option. But the company places the HD ability of the PVR on first place, even though T-Home includes only one HD channel the free TV channel Anixe HD and some HD music clips by Deluxe Television and some other VoD items by other broadcasters (mainly documentaries) as well as movies in HD. Premiere on the other hand concentrates completely on the advantages of the HD broadcast and the advantages of the HD content offered. The PayTV platform presents all technical advantages of HD, sharp pictures, better colours, detailed wide screen broadcast and Dolby Digital sound, but also advertises all HD content subscribers are able to watch: sport events, top series, movie blockbusters and documentaries. Another advantage of the campaign are the chosen pictures for the advertisements. No doubt, Premiere could have chosen a prettier turtle for the Discovery HD ad. But both still shots, one from a Discovery documentary and from the blockbuster The Kingdom , offer an up-close perspective, that creates the feeling of being in the middle of the action and catches the attention right away. The current Premiere ads offer a good chance to show a successful campaign for HD. As this is a paid service (10 EUR on top) Premiere uses adequate examples from the HD content to justify the additional fee and show the value of the package (Premiere concentrates on using movies and documentaries for the ads, as football and sports broadcasts are not always considered a first choice for HD print advertisements). Deutsche Telekom s campaign on the other hand can be considered as a part of a current policy, criticised by many customer protection organisations and electronic producers. The company tries to benefit from the HD hype by selling the HD ability of the PVR as an exclusive feature of the platform. As the company is not able to present a useful advantage for customers or show some kind of extra value delivered to the T-Home customers it clearly fails to advocate the usage of the HD feature as a marketing tool. Kind regards, Justin Hewelt & Sebastian Becker 9th December 2008