Sky allready have a vast Customer service system, they also have better tech, they could try to extend to the DTT hardware, as well as cheaper channel contacts.
Sky also have an unfortunate habit of tying people in to contracts, deals and phone connections (in other words a means to bombard with advertising). This cannot be allowed to dominate in a TV system which will be the default standard in the future as analogue terrestrial is now.
DTT should never have been marketed as a pay-TV service in the first place. Period.
MD
mdta
DTT pay tv could work, but it must be advertised as a step below Sky Digital, and more of an introduction to Digital TV
GR
thegreenfairy
It's absolutely right that DTT has to be as simple, neutral and free as possible. having said that, now that there are more channels available on terrestrial (compared with Analogue) it would be a good idea to set aside one mux or one and a half for premium channels to at least give everyone a choice. Very much the same system France has always operated on analogue - with Canal+ available through an aeriel for a subscription. This would not be the same as Sky or Cable, the true multichannel platforms, but would provide a good range of free channels, plus the chance to have sports, films, porn or a sort of HBO-style channel if you wanted, without going the whole hog.
I'd prefer the premiums to be new purpose-built channels specifically made for DTT, but I suppose if the slot were given to Sky it wouldn't be so bad.
Good call that greenfairy, a bit like Sky was in the early 90's with some free channels and a couple of premium ones. That could work very well in fact, but the only problem is that the technology would have to get cheap enough, and I can't see that happening for a year or two at least.
I have no problem with Sky taking over such a service, as long as the basis of terrestrial TV remains that at least 75% of the channels available are FTA at all times.
This country will never get everyone over to digital TV as long as it is perceived as a pay service, this has been shown in surveys time and time again. Now is the only chance we will get to be brave enough to set up a viable, attractive free service.
It needs to be said, and people have to understand, that DTT is not just another platform. It is the terrestrial platform, the one that TVs will use if they are not connected to a STB in 10-15 years' time. Therefore it is vital that it is not just treated as a Sky Lite, because the country needs a strong FTA market, if only because a very high percentage of people will not pay a subscription.
(Edited by jason at 2:31 am on Mar. 23, 2002)
LS
Larry Scutta
What everyone is forgetting is that Sky aren't doing that well at the moment. Their losses last year were enormous.... no digital TV platform company is doing well.
The diffrence is that Sky know that if they keep on and invest now then in the long run it will make money. They've done it before and are doing it again.
In the long-run when DTT is the da-facto standard for TV and all new sets have to be digital (something they should have done years ago) ITV digital as it is now would do very well.
TS
TSW
Quote:
cwathen on 1:50 pm on Mar. 22, 2002
Quote:
Prehaps circumstances are a little different, but there are the similarities that Carlton and Granada, eager to expand into other markets, developed ITV Digital, and now that it's in trouble, they will eventually be forced to bail it out, draining them of their resources and cash.
Carlton and Granada have allready bailed it out several times - I think the rebrand to ITV Digital was just a last ditch attempt to try and increase the popularity of the service, and even that didn't work. The fact that this time they have refused to take responsibility for ITV Digital PLC shows that they know they've reached breaking point, it's costing them too much money and they can't do it any more.
Believe me, ITV Digital is dead. It won't last the end of the year.
You've twisted what I said. I said that ITV Digiatl and especially Carlton and Granada should be wary of what happened to TVS, who got big too quickly because of expanding into other markets, and when I said forced, I meant legally forced by a court, which is where this dispute is going to go, if any one of the affected parties is unhappy
Blake Connolly on 9:16 pm on Mar. 21, 2002
The clubs are depending on this money, and if it has to come from somewhere. ITV Digital made a big mistake in making this deal, but once it was done the clubs started spending the money - who would have expected it not to come? The foundations of the national game are depending on the money to survive and Carlton and Granada have a reponsibilty to pay up.
Nationwide Football clubs are too obsessed at making the Premiership, so they overpsent their ITV sport money on too many players with high wages too early.
It wouldn't surprise me if Burnley like many other overambitious nationwide clubs went up in smoke as they have gambled too much of this ITV sport money on paying Paul Gascoigne on taking them to the Premiership, rather than living within their means with a healthy balance sheet. Mid table first division placing is success for clubs like Burnley, York City and Preston North End. Yet too many boardrooms panick when the Premiership is out of reach and the clubs are falling further into the red and sack the team manager.
Many Nationide club boradrooms thought their clubs could afford to carry heavy debts for years as once they're in the Premiership with all the riches guaranteed they would suddenly wipe out all their debts. With the collpase of ITV Digital imminent, how wrong these clubs will have proved to be.
In the long-run when DTT is the da-facto standard for TV and all new sets have to be digital (something they should have done years ago) ITV
They should have made only digital TV's years ago? I don't think we should even have digital TV yet. I know it's made things like ITVD possible, but really, when I had Sky Analogue and 30 odd channels, I couldn't find anything lacking in those 30 channels. The picture quality (moreso of DTT than other Digital platforms, but they're all affected) is abysmal because it's compressed so much. If they were compressed so that they look indistinquishable from a good analogue picture, there wouldn't be half as many channels on digital platforms. MPEG2 digital might be OK for DVD's with plenty of bandwidth, but I don't think it's the right delivery system for digital TV which expects far too much from it - and if anything I think the closure of ITV Digital, which will see the DTT platform become a shadow of it's former self with most DTT equipment being tied to ITV Digital, should be used as an opportunity to scrap the one they have and break in a new platform for DTT. It really needs doing - I can't believe they are seriously considering replacing analogue signals with the DTT that we have now - it would be like replacing PAL with NTSC.
Is this 10/9/whatever days the amount of time until the ACTUAL closure, or the amount of time until the ANNOUNCEMENT of it's closure? Surely if it really did have barely over a week left to go then there would be some type of announcement? I know it's too early to expect letters yet, but surely we should not that letters are coming, or there should be an announcement on channel 88? I think it's more likely that it's closure will simply be ANNOUNCED after easter. And the actual closure will be during July or August.