9 - Being First: The Digital TV Race

Summary

The shift in the Conservative Party's attitude toward the BBC in the 1990s hardly represented the abandonment of its program to expand choice and introduce market reforms in the broadcasting sector. While the Major cabinet was certainly more sympathetic to the principles of public broadcasting and the Reithian tradition, market liberalization was still very much in the agenda. By the mid-1990s, however, the term had acquired a new meaning. After the reforms introduced by the 1990 act, competition – however imperfect – now existed in the terrestrial market, and though more liberalization was without doubt possible, Tory leaders were confident that the industry was headed in the right direction. The problem was now in the pay-TV sector. BSkyB had become successful to a degree that few could have imagined only a few years before. After two years of heavy losses in the aftermath of the Sky-BSB merger, the new company was now well into profitability and completely dominated the pay-TV sector. By 1994 BSkyB had almost 3 million subscribers, had secured contracts with the Premier League for exclusive rights to live football coverage, and was the major content supplier for the struggling cable industry. In addition, it controlled the dominant CAS and subscriber management operator that provided access services to other programmers (a subsidiary called Sky Subscribers Services Limited, or SSSL).