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If you ruled Freeview

What would you do? (December 2003)

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CO
Corin
If I was in charge of Freeview, which remember is more of a marketing organisation than anything else, I would be campaigning for analog transmission to be ended as soon as possible, and for more multiplex channel allocations to be made available.

More space means more potential carriage fees, and so more profit, and more bonuses for the chief executive.
:-(
A former member
BBC TV Centre posted:
Larry Scutta posted:
Truely dire programming..... in your opinion

Seriously, do you call a channel that shows stuff like an insight into the lapdancing chain Spearmint Rhino, what sex will be like in the future, some people buying an old banger doing it up and selling it on for some stupid price quality television? Rolling Eyes

However I'd rather have blank spaces than having to see these piles of (insert expletive here) whilst flicking through the channels.


Well no-one's forcing you to watch them, and if they affend you while channel surfing they can be removed or hidden from your line-up

I'd much rather have a channel there that I rarely watch than nothing at all. I'm not as arrogant to think that just because I don't enjoy something that no-one else does
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
In regards to UK Gold they could just show the time shift version (UK Gold +1). This way paying customers would get to see the programmes first, whilst Freeview customers would still benefit.

Personally I would prefer to see fewer shopping channels etc. although this is unlikely to ever happen, unless these channels merge.
ME
me
I'd sell it and buy a small island somewhere Wink
:-(
A former member
I don't care much for UK Gold, but i would love to see UK Horizons.

I'd Like To see The Amp and Flaunt too.
CW
cwathen Founding member
Quote:
In regards to UK Gold they could just show the time shift version (UK Gold +1). This way paying customers would get to see the programmes first, whilst Freeview customers would still benefit.

I don't see any need for this. Sky Travel, Sky Sports News, ITV2, UK History, UK BrightIdeas, FTN, TMF and The Hits are all pay channels on other platforms.

There is no need to let paying customers have the programmes first, and imo it would just add needless complication for promotion.

I do believe that UK Gold would do well on there. Since the BBC have a vested interest in seeing Freeview suceed, and do (if technically indirectly) have a lot of sway with UKTV, I'd have thought they'd want a 'killer channel' on the platform to attract people.

UK Gold may have lost it's way, but it's still perceived as being a popular must have channel, it's the only channel which could feasibly overcome the pay TV rights issues, and I do think would do a lot to increase the platform's popularity.
BR
Brekkie
Having had Freeview for a couple of months now I do think it can work as a free-to-air platform, but it needs more during the daytime. At the moment the only non-specialist additional daytime channel is ITV2. Otherwise it's news or kids programmes.

Also, I think Teletext should team up with ITV and five so their service is available off all their channels.
ME
me
Actually, just talking about Freeview, how long will the brand last? When (if?) analogue is switched off, Freeview just will be standard TV.

But will they keep advertising it as "Freeview" up until that point?
CW
cwathen Founding member
Quote:
Actually, just talking about Freeview, how long will the brand last? When (if?) analogue is switched off, Freeview just will be standard TV.

But will they keep advertising it as "Freeview" up until that point?

I don't think it'll last forever, and I've always felt it a bad idea to associate any brand with DTT anyway. Giving a brand name to a platform instantly makes it different to 'normal telly' which isn't exactly going to help tack into the hard core of people who only want 'normal telly'.

And falsely trying to use it as a blanket brand for DTT when it's actually just a brand name used by the operator of two of the multiplexes also results in a lot of feedback landing at their feet which has nothing to do with them. A lot of people probably don't realise that it's not Freeview's department to deal with queries on the proliferation of shopping channels or the poor availability of boxes in the past.

A better approach would have been to explain that DTT was normal telly too, and soon (even though it wouldn't be soon at all) it would be the only type of normal telly, and recently a lot of new channels have started on it, and by getting a DTT receiver, you could watch them - for free, because it's normal TV and not Sky. And then you'd be all equipped with the normal telly of the future.

Yes it does mean a bit more thought needs to be put into promotion, but I think peddling it as being as normal as analogue terrestrial would do them more favours than their current approach of selling it as a free version of Sky - that just makes it come across as being another add on product.
YO
yogibarney
cwathen posted:
Quote:
In regards to UK Gold they could just show the time shift version (UK Gold +1). This way paying customers would get to see the programmes first, whilst Freeview customers would still benefit.

I don't see any need for this. Sky Travel, Sky Sports News, ITV2, UK History, UK BrightIdeas, FTN, TMF and The Hits are all pay channels on other platforms.

There is no need to let paying customers have the programmes first, and imo it would just add needless complication for promotion.

I do believe that UK Gold would do well on there. Since the BBC have a vested interest in seeing Freeview suceed, and do (if technically indirectly) have a lot of sway with UKTV, I'd have thought they'd want a 'killer channel' on the platform to attract people.

UK Gold may have lost it's way, but it's still perceived as being a popular must have channel, it's the only channel which could feasibly overcome the pay TV rights issues, and I do think would do a lot to increase the platform's popularity.


Those channels aree avilable on sky and cable networks on their basic packages and is listed on skys this is wot u get free with us leaftlet.

In regards to UK Gold you say BBC as a lot of sway with UK TV but also Telewest does, hence why it is only Bright Ideas on Freeview as it is cheaper to run that channel on Freeview than the others. It also entices those who want to see Gold, Food, Style and Horizons to go on Sky or the cable providers themselves.
They're not daft Telewest, I would do the same if i was in the same boots
MI
Mich Founding member
iloveyorkshire posted:

In regards to UK Gold you say BBC as a lot of sway with UK TV but also Telewest does, hence why it is only Bright Ideas on Freeview as it is cheaper to run that channel on Freeview than the others. It also entices those who want to see Gold, Food, Style and Horizons to go on Sky or the cable providers themselves.
They're not daft Telewest, I would do the same if i was in the same boots


Actually the more intelligent move, IMHO, would be to launch a channel called UKTV[+], in UK History slot. A mix of all of their services, with style, food and some gold during the day, horizons, gold and drama in the evening. This would a successful channel in it's own right, but could be a useful trailer for the whole network. They could also evolve ftn to be 24hr, and do something similar with the flextech channels.
CW
cwathen Founding member
Quote:
Those channels aree avilable on sky and cable networks on their basic packages and is listed on skys this is wot u get free with us leaftlet.

They are not, you have to go right the way up to the family package (which I think is now £19.50/month?) before you get any of them. Sky's basic package only gets you Sky One and Home&Leisure (they do list other channels but these are all free anway)

I've never heard of Sky's what you get free with us leaflet, but the only freebie Sky operate is Sky News.

Quote:
It also entices those who want to see Gold, Food, Style and Horizons to go on Sky or the cable providers themselves.
They're not daft Telewest, I would do the same if i was in the same boots

This is the problem. Freeview is supposed to operate with a view to making DTT a succesful platform in it's own right, yet too many of it's partners want to treat it as a barker for their own platforms.

Sky do this terribly with Sky Sports News. It seems to be that most people who value a dedicated sports news service would also value Sky Sports. Hence, aswell as being a sports news service SSN is also one big rolling promo for Sky Sports (which I imagine is the same reason they include it on their own platform in the family package). When it came to proposals to eventually swap out one of their 3 Freeview channels for this new forthcoming Sky entertainment channel (incidentally, a bit of a backtrack from their original 'Sky One within 18 months' line), the obvious one to go would be SSN. But no, they are going to 'evolve it' out of Sky Travel, leaving their Sky Sports barker channel intact.

And yes I have also noticed that every other trailer on UKBI and UK History is for a programme on another channel, or a trailer for
the network itself - the latest one stressing how many channels there are to it. Putting their standard closedown caption up on UK History showing all the other enticing UKTV channels must surely be done for the same reason.

Ditto promos on FTN for other Flextech channels on pay TV platforms.

This will always be a problem with Freeview, it will remain crap, but with plenty of reminders of the good stuff - on other platforms.

And is this good for the long term success for building DTT as a viable platform in it's own right (which was the whole point of Freeview)? I think not.

Quote:
Actually the more intelligent move, IMHO, would be to launch a channel called UKTV[+], in UK History slot. A mix of all of their services, with style, food and some gold during the day, horizons, gold and drama in the evening. This would a successful channel in it's own right, but could be a useful trailer for the whole network. They could also evolve ftn to be 24hr, and do something similar with the flextech channels.

Amusingly, when it wasn't clear what UKBI was going to be and just the UKTV corporate logo appear on the screen (which has a '+' after it), an awful lot of people thought that it was a channel called 'UKTV+', and to this day I still see some retailers listing the mythical 'UKTV+' in the lineup (I think the Index book once actually had UKTV+, UK HomeStyle AND UK Bright Ideas. But then they also listed 'BBCi' AND 'BBC Interactive' AND 'BBC Digital').

Anyway, it sounds like a good idea in principal, but remember that FTN is supposed to do the same thing with Flextech's little empire, and it's turned out to be mainly homegrown tack - the dregs of their own channels. It is slowly improving, but slow is the word.

I'd like to think that a UKTV+ showing the best from UKTV would be better, but I'm not sure that it would be.

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