EPG trades "to boom" when launches stop

The market in Sky electronic programme guide slots will boom when the broadcaster stops allowing channels to launch, a leading trader has said.

Ed Hall's company Canis Media has been brokering deals involving EPG slots for itself and others since around 2002. He spoke to Digital Spy about the rapid development in the market which has recently seen Discovery UK pay £1.4m in a part-exchange.

Hall said the regularity of deals had increased significantly since Sky stopped accepting applications to its launch queue in the autumn.

Channels already in the launch queue are gradually being allowed to join the EPG. In October, there were around 100 to go - however, Sky is unsure how many more may be added before older set-top boxes begin to suffer technical problems.

According to Hall the process of launching those in the waiting list could be stopped "at any time".

When this happens demand will further increase particularly because, at the moment, companies are attempting to trade places in the waiting list itself.

"There is a lot of activity going on at the moment," he said. "The other thing is there are a lot in the queue to launch who now think their place in the queue is an asset. Positions are not as precious now as they will be when Sky ends the launching process."

Hall said the industry was largely unaware of the possibility of exchanging EPG positions until about 2002, when his firm, then called Sirius, bought defunct shopping channel HSE.

"Originally people were of the view it wasn't possible to transfer these contracts. We found ways to do that. We started doing it for ourselves but over the years it has become something we've done more and more for other people.

"For example, France 24 was going to have some difficulty getting Sky to launch it on time, and we found space through someone else's EPG. We did the same for Discovery to launch DMAX.

"The main thing last year was to improve positions... being on the top page or second page is going to give you more viewers. Saying that, some (broadcasters) stay further down and want to get their channels closer to each other."

Hall will be looking to sell six slots spread through the EPG at this week's MIPTV conference in Cannes. He said the value of a relatively low-placed slot was currently about £50,000-£100,000, though added that this is "only likely to increase".

As the value of prominent positions increases, relatively large broadcasters may look to sell them on and exit Sky altogether, Hall believes. "Some surprisingly large channel groups have rung me up and asked what I think their positions may be worth," he said.

"At the end of the day they are assets and, with Freeview, it is possible to look at broadcast strategies that don't include Sky. If you have got a £5m-10m asset that isn't even on your balance sheet, you can make a gain. That could go quite a long way towards funding a Freeview strategy."

Hall also thinks that, contrary to the claims of some multiplex owners, there is Freeview capacity available to those who are willing to pay the price. This could be about £12.5m per year for a 24-hour-a-day service, he said.

"Most will deny it, but most of the big owners have got some capacity," he said.

Source: Digital Spy