It might have seemed, for a while there, as though James Ackerman
was destined not to see out the launch of Open. After all, when he
joined the interactive TV company last year, he was the third chief
executive in less than 12 months.
A year ago, too, it might have seemed as though interactive digital
television was heading for less than sure-fire success. Apart from the
departed chief executives, Open’s also lost a number of other key staff
along the way, has spawned the necessary number of cynical critics
required for any media launch and experienced the requisite technical
hiccups.
So this week’s official launch - with both Ackerman and the company’s
reputation intact - may seem like triumph enough. Yet so long has been
this baby’s labour that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Open is
little short of a global trailblazer. At a time when so many of the
major media manoeuvres and technological advances happen overseas, the
launch of interactive television on this scale is a home-grown coup.
As Ackerman points out: ’Britain leads the rest of the world in moving
to digital TV and Open is proud to be leading the way.’ Ackerman may
have come through the last 12 months feeling a little older and a little
greyer, perhaps, but with the launch of a major TV revolution to his
name.
Ackerman, who claims that TV is in his genes - his mother was an
actress, his father a TV producer - is no stranger to the world of
multi-channel television. The American executive is a former head of
Sky’s joint venture channels, including Nickleodeon, Paramount, Granada
Sky Broadcasting, but getting a whole new medium off the ground is
pioneering stuff. Except that, of course, the Open pioneers are sifting
for gold in the full view of the broadcasting industry and Open’s
package of home shopping, banking and interactive entertainment launches
to more than a million homes from day one through the Sky Digital
system. This is one media launch that is impossible to ignore and
Ackerman says that Open’s launch is ’a significant moment in TV
history’.
But as with any new product the launch is simply the beginning of the
beginning. Nobody is really sure how many people will want to shop and
bank via their TV sets, how often and to what level of expenditure.
According to Nick Bryant, the commercial director of Open: ’There’s no
precedent for what we’re doing here, it’s a real leap of faith for
everybody.’
Yet there’s already evidence of interactive TV’s potential. Open has
been available to a limited number of homes for the past few months and
- before the advertising and promotions for the full service kicked in -
people were stumbling across the system and using it in encouraging
numbers.
During this soft launch, product sales via Open topped pounds 100,000,
with the Manchester United and Woolworths sites proving the most
popular. HSBC, which has a home banking service on Open, was registering
1,000 customers every couple of days, outstripping the performance of
the high street branches. The interactive game, Bedlam, generated more
than 60,000 entries to its competition.
Research from Millward Brown found people were visiting Open several
times a week and more than half of those who could access it during this
trial period did. Now that Open is fully operational and a pounds 17
million ad campaign from Ogilvy & Mather is endeavouring to ensure we
all know of its arrival, its usage is expected to soar.
So much so, in fact, that City analysts are already slavering over how
much this baby would be worth if - or rather, it seems, when - it floats
on the stock market. Open’s four founding partners - BSkyB, BT, HSBC and
Matsushita - are now looking at a potential valuation of around pounds
2.4 billion. And this despite the fact that Open’s trade marketing has
been a little lacklustre so far and there are still a number of gaps in
its portfolio of services - Next is the only high street fashion
retailer signed up, for example, and while Teletext is awash with
holiday firms, Open has just two .
Still, for market gap, read opportunity. And the lure of a million-plus
homes will continue to attract interest, while the launch of interactive
television itself could help drive the uptake of digital satellite.
What’s more, Ackerman insists that Open will become a generic for
interactive television and has not simply aligned itself with the
digital satellite platform. ’This is just the start of our journey - we
look forward to millions of people joining us in the future,’ he
adds.
THE ACKERMAN FILE
1983
Florida search and rescue team, coastguard
1987
Grey Entertainment, accounts supervisor
1991
The Family Channel, director of original programming
1992
Hearst Entertainment, vice-president of development
1994
A&E Television Networks, vice-president
1996
Sky Ventures, managing director
1998
Open, chief executive
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