The couch potato flips channels on broadband

First the telcos and now the content providers. While Channel Four may not be turning its back on broadband altogether, that one of the UK's most active content providers for broadband services has come to the realisation that demand isn't justifying investment is yet another set back for the market.

Providing high-speed always-on internet access (commonly thought of as over 128kbps) to the consumer's home has been fraught with problems this year.

A significant number of network providers have already pulled out, blaming unreasonable terms and conditions set by - yup, you guessed it - our favourite national telco.

Since they are finding it so difficult to get homes connected it's a bit rich to suggest that content providers should drive demand by offering more broadband services.

While the network providers like to think it's a chicken-and-egg situation, without the user numbers there's little the content providers can do.

There's no shortage of content providers who would like to take advantage of this potentially lucrative market - if you take a stroll through the net there are plenty sites which offer music downloads, virtual chat rooms and gaming sites. All of them would relish the opportunity to administer some kind of subscription model if only they could guarantee their users could get the enhanced services through broadband.

There are of course revenue issues with broadband - the most critical being how to make the consumer pay for content they are used to receiving for free.

However, while over a third of homes in the UK accessing digital TV, under one per cent of UK home have broadband access* - it doesn't take a genius to do the maths.

Channel Four's move doesn't spell the end for broadband but it does underline the commercial realities for content providers that in the short to medium term their best bet is interactive TV.
* Taken from a survey by strategy analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com)

For related stories see:
Channel 4 switches off broadband delivery
http://www.silicon.com/a45728
A new horizon for broadband
http://www.silicon.com/a45525
Broadband guru says less is more
http://www.silicon.com/a45430
Broadband battle begins amid market meltdown
http://www.silicon.com/a45340