The French transmitter company TDF has offered broadcasters the opportunity to test VOD on digital terrestrial television in early 2009. Several broadcasters have already expressed an interest.
“It is possible to broadcast overnight a signal on DTT to send movies to the hard disk of a viewer. In the morning, the viewer can access a catalogue of content stored on the hard drive,” said Alain Komly, MD DTT at TDF to the newspaper Les Echos.
A number of broadcasters would be interested, including TF1, France Television and M6. By using push VOD, the system would save broadcasters the costs of using DSL in delivering the content.
Although technically possible, the law needs to be changed as the current terrestrial broadcasting licence does not allow them to broadcast VOD programming.
In the UK Top Up TV has run a push VOD service since August 2006. There is also interest from the Norwegian pay-TV platform Riks TV.
