The year came to 2003. On New Year's Day, SDTV was officially launched on the Freeview platform.
At nine o'clock in the evening of that day, which is also the "prime time" for TV dramas, SDTV premiered the first season of "Downton Abbey".
According to the original plan, "Downton Abbey" will broadcast one episode every Saturday night, so it will be a weekly TV series.
But because New Year's Day is on Wednesday, after the New Year's Day broadcast, the second episode of the first season will continue to be broadcast on Saturday of that week, and then it will be broadcast weekly.
Although the number of users of the Freeview platform at that time just exceeded 200,000 households, and the ratings of "Downton Abbey" were too pitiful compared to dramas on other TV stations, the broadcast of this drama still caused a great response in the UK.
The reason is that when the second episode of "Downton Abbey" was broadcast, it was Saturday, a holiday. According to tests, an astonishing 90% of Freeview platform users watched this TV series.
Even through interviews and messages on the Internet, many people went to their friends' houses to watch this TV series because they did not have a set-top box for the Freeview platform at home.
Therefore, even though there were only 200,000 users on the Freeview platform, the number of viewers for the second episode of the first season of "Downton Abbey" exceeded 1 million!
There are also reports that the Queen herself is a loyal fan of the novel "Downton Abbey". After the TV series was broadcast, she watched the entire series and praised the series highly, believing that it completely restored the details of the aristocratic life of the time.
This recognition from the royal family has further boosted the popularity of "Downton Abbey".
It was also from this time that Digital UK's happy troubles began. Their customer service received countless calls every day, urging them to provide TV set-top boxes, preferably installed within a week, so that they would not miss the next season of "Downton Abbey".
And they are no longer picky about set-top boxes. Even those made in China are being scrambled for. After all, from the current perspective, the quality of set-top boxes made in China is not as bad as imagined. On the contrary, the deposit required is much lower.
To this end, Digital UK even made the decision to stop waiting for the lengthy sea transportation and start working in three shifts at the Puma Electronics (Huaxia) factory at full capacity. The set-top boxes produced will be immediately airlifted to the UK and delivered to users in the shortest possible time.
The Puma factory in the UK has not been idle, but has begun to produce more high-end set-top boxes. Using Digital UK's latest technology, set-top boxes with on-demand and downloading functions are about to be launched.
Of course, such set-top boxes will not be available for free rental, but will need to be purchased. However, if users want to use the services of on-demand and downloading program content, they will also be charged.
…
"During the process of developing technology for our Freeview platform services, we have discovered that they involve broadband networks. Some services can be provided to users more conveniently through broadband networks. Therefore, we are preparing to cooperate with telecom operators to add certain network functions to our terrestrial digital TV set-top boxes."
At this time, broadband in the UK is already relatively popular. Of course, the current Internet speed cannot be compared with that in a few years, but some simple audio and video transmission functions are still available.
Even if users download program content more slowly, they can still set it up to download and watch it when they get home from get off work.
The words of Brad Price, CEO of Digital UK, reminded Baron of his previous life, when he was the richest man in China, and the "Shanda Box" plan of Mr. Chen, the boss of Shanda Network.
But if we want to cooperate with telecom operators...
Why don't you become a telecom operator yourself?
Just like BSkyB Digital, they relied on their set-top box-related network services and later developed a very large scale in the telecommunications business.
But here comes the problem. Although the share prices of telecom operators have plummeted due to the bursting of the Internet bubble, companies of a certain scale are not something that Barron can afford now. They are large companies with market capitalizations of several billion or even tens of billions of pounds!
But think about how SoftBank developed? How did Li Chaoren make a lot of money in the telecom business?
So this is really an industry with great development potential.
"Your Highness, it's an honor to see you again."
"Mr. Rolf, our friendship has stood the test of time, hasn't it?"
This time, the person Barron met was Rolf, the head of Barclays Bank's credit business when he was initially processing the loan for the family trust fund.
Seeing the young and handsome Duke again, Rolf felt quite sad. The Devonshire family, which had faced the loan crisis at the beginning, was in a completely different situation now. Not only had they repaid the loans from other banks as agreed at the beginning, but their business with Barclays Bank was also going very well.
It was also thanks to his "friendship" with His Royal Highness the Duke, and mainly because of his decisiveness in handling the loan business of the Devonshire Family Trust Fund, that Rolf went a step further and became one of the vice presidents of Barclays Bank.
"You said that this time we have a big business to discuss, right? Your Highness."
"Yes, this time I'm going to make a big acquisition..."
Hearing Barron's words, Rolf's eyes began to show anticipation.
Sure enough, what Barron said next was not only a "big acquisition", but also far beyond Rolf's expectations:
"You mean you want to buy O2?"
It's no wonder that Rolf was surprised. Although O2 was originally a business spun off from British Telecom (BT) last year, the company, which mainly provides mobile communications services, currently has a market value of several billion pounds. As far as Rolf knows, this scale is not something that the Duke can acquire.
This is not just a snake swallowing an elephant, it's a mouse swallowing an elephant!
British Telecom is the oldest giant company in the British telecommunications industry. It was originally a state-owned telecommunications utility in the UK, managed by the General Post Office. On October 1, 1981, it separated from the Royal Mail and became an independent state-owned enterprise.
Under the administration of British Conservative Party Margaret Thatcher, 50% of public shares were sold to the market in 1984, making it a private company. The company has always been the largest operator of telecommunications hardware in the UK.
After the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000, British Telecom suffered a severe blow and was forced to announce a share issue worth 5.9 billion pounds and postpone dividend payment plan in 2001 to cope with a loss of 1 billion pounds in fiscal year 2001 and reduce its debt of 27.9 billion pounds.
O2's predecessor was British Telecom's wireless division, originally called BT Cellnet.
As part of its financial restructuring, BT spun off its mobile business into an independent company called mmO2.
This year, mmO2 officially launched the O2 brand and became O2 company.
It can be said that in the current mobile business in the UK, O2's market share has been hovering between first and second place. Among them, the company that competes very fiercely with O2 is Vodafone. The future SoftBank has developed into one of the largest telecommunications operators in Japan after acquiring Vodafone's Japanese branch.