Product details

This case concerns the launch of Freeview, a digital terrestrial television service that was launched from the shell of a failed venture - ITVDigital - in the UK in 2002, and which achieved a strong market resonance in a very short space of time. At the time of launch the 'old' service had just 600,000 homes subscribed. By January 2005 Freeview had increased this figure to over 5 million. Freeview was a three-way joint venture between the BBC, Crown Castle, and BSkyB. Many aspects of the project are surprising. First was the fact that the BBC and Sky had been rivals for decades. Second was the sheer speed with which the service launched, especially since this involved re-engineering the entire technological architecture and creating a new mass market brand in just four months. Drawing on extensive primary research and interviews with key protagonists, this case provides an insider perspective on the evolution of a major strategic initiative within a complex organisation. It explores how the various internal departments - strategy, marketing, technology - collaborated in an atmosphere of intense pressure in order to realise an important goal, and focuses particularly on leadership, team processes at senior management level, and how consumer insight can drive strategic decision-making.