BT contacts Which? after BT Vision review

[BGonaSTICK]

BT is seeking details from Which? magazine after the influential consumer guide said it had encountered problems with the telco's hybrid digital terrestrial and internet protocol television service, BT Vision. Which? researchers said the service—currently being marketed after a soft-launch in December—took five weeks to install and "kept crashing, locking up and generally misbehaving". A new box installed by BT "also crashed from time to time".

"In theory, the BT Vision service has much potential and the on-demand content is set to improve, but based on our experiences, we can't recommend it at this stage," said a review in the July edition of Which? magazine.

The review said BT Vision's digital TV recorder failed to "buffer" recording times, so it missed the end of programmes that over-ran. A BT spokesman denied BT Vision set-top boxes did not support buffering, and stressed it was "very straightforward to do".

The BT spokesman told Lovelace Consulting: "We've seen several reviews of BT Vision and these have been encouraging, but it's clear the service here was less than it should have been and we've contacted Which? to get more details."

BT Vision combines Freeview's 40 broadcast channels with thousands of hours of on-demand entertainment, delivered via broadband. BT is aiming for between 2m and 3m BT Vision customers within three to four years.