Carolyn Fairbairn, director of group development and strategy at ITV, revealed that the cash-strapped company is exploring the possibility of charging ‘micropayments’ to users wanting to access some of its content online.  This follows Rupert Murdoch’s assertion that it is only a matter of time before the era of free content on the internet comes to an end.

Under ITV’s plans, viewers would not be charged for live programmes online but could be required to pay to watch ‘catch-up’ services or archived programmes on ITV Player

 ”Micropayments are absolutely on our agenda. We are part-funding the Digital Britain research into the viability of this,” said Ms Fairburn.

“We will continue to look for ad-supported models, absolutely. However, the idea people will pay [for content online] is something we should look at and do. We need some kind of payment system and then we will see if it flourishes.”

If ITV does introduce charging, a credit system similar to that used with oyster cards on the London underground could be put in place to make payments easier.

“In the future, if we do charge small amounts for our content, we are going to need something like an oyster card system for the internet,” said Ms Fairburn, speaking in London at the Future of Broadcasting conference.

And herein lies the rub.  Micropayments online are very hard to collect, as currently people need to either buy a large chunk of “credit” upfront, which is not appealing to many consumers, or use their credit card every time which costs the service provider (in this case ITV) a fortune in payment service costs.  This is because payment service companies like Streamline charge a fee by transaction, irrespective of the amount. 

It is also questionable how much content customers will be willing to pay for.  There may be a few “must see” headline shows that people would be willing to pay to view, but the majority of the content is not appealing enough to expect people to pay.

What is clear however is that on-demand viewing online just keeps growing almost exponentially which is driving the appetite for broadband speed among UK consumers.  Current average broadband speed is only 3.6 Mb/sec, but customers are hungry for more.  Broadband speed availability varies hugely by location.  If you need help to compare broadband packages and available speeds, do give our experts a call on 0800 1388 388 or visit us at www.simplifydigital.co.uk     

Written by Charlie