Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
I'd hazard a guess that the overwhelming majority of Sky's customers don't even know you can manually tune the box, and wouldn't want to try even if they did know how.
It is inevitable that, over time, a lot of channels that are currently encrypted will go FTA. This will be thanks first to the BBC who used their muscle to get one of the Astra transponders refocused on the UK only (thereby solving rights issues), then with ITV formed a marketable, alternative proposition to Sky. It becomes worthwhile for other channels to make the jump to FTA and to develop interactive services if they think someone is actually watching. Which wasn't happening before, because until now FTA DVB-S boxes have been a hobbyists product available in Maplins, rather than a consumer product available in Currys and John Lewis.
Hands up who thinks C4's channels, and Five's, later this year, would have gone FTA if it hadn't been for Freesat?
Sky are doing nobody any favours here. Any benefit anyone is getting from this is because of the existence of Freesat. This is what happens in a market where there is a choice, rather than a single supplier calling all the shots.
Some things the Sky STB spec doesn't have:
- Ethernet, therefore no possibility of a broadband return path and therefore nothing even close to VOD from the iPlayer or 4OD
- ITV HD (not something I'm enthused about personally, but each to their own)
- Integrated TV/receiver equipment
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Did the BBC manage to get Astra to refocus a single transponder, or was it a transponder on Astra 2D which has all of its transponders focused on the UK. If a single transponder can be refocused then Astra could do more of them, I don't think they can.
Sky did an integrated TV/receiver in the early days, it didn't prove popular. As far as I'm concerned I'd rather have seperate boxes, if one breaks down I don't then have to replace the whole thing. One last thing, how long do people think it will be before h.264 SD channels will start? Thats a lot of integrated TV's that will need a seperate decoder box. I'm thinking more about the Freeview TV's rather than Freesat, the Freesat ones will have h.264 decoders built in if they can already see BBC HD.
I think Sky are victims of their own success. They have been the only ones willing to spend very significant amounts of money, buying programming and investing in new technology. More HD channels than anyone else in Europe etc, but because they are a company looking to make money people will always be looking to get it cheaper and criticising.
---------- Post added at 12:44 ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by the-cable-guy
yes all the UK channels were encrypted however they were FTV & not pay tv, i know cuz when me mam cancelled her subscription when she had Sky many years ago we were still getting all of the UK terrestrial tv channels. its not hard to find the info on how to manually add channels & if theres the ability to do it on freesat receivers then ppl would need to know how to tune to get all of the FTA channels at 28 East. im not clutching at straws its just that you cant compare equipment with equipment that isint even out yet as you havent used it (neither have i). its like saying that a Playstation 3 is better then an XBox 360 before the Playstation 3 had been realised. i cant really answer your question about broadband return paths for interactive services as iv never used anything that has the capability, so id just be guessing if i did  |
UKTV are definitely not FTV. A quick check on Sky's packs shows Dave, UKTV Drama and UKTV Gold are in the variety pack for example.