noggin's posts, page 158

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NG
noggin Founding member

Why wasn't ITV on Sky Digital in the early days?

thegeek posted:
Markymark posted:

This reminds me of the FTV card saga. When Sky Digital launched, you could buy an unsubsidised box, without a subscription package. That was fine, except you had no access to FTV encrypted services, notably the BBC, and C4 (I can't remember what the initial situation was with C5). The BBC and C4 funded an FTV
card scheme, where you could ring a helpline, and they'd send you a Sky viewing card paired to your box and postcode.

They still offer this - £254 for a SkyHD box and dish (installed), or £25 for a FTV viewing card. Apparently you need the card to watch Channel 4 HD and Channel 5 - I'm not near my box to see if they disappear if I take the card out.


Does the £10/month Sky+ subscription still need to be paid for PVR functionality ? And do you need to pay that for iPlayer access?
NG
noggin Founding member

Why wasn't ITV on Sky Digital in the early days?

Markymark posted:
noggin posted:
Markymark posted:

ITV 2 certainly did, and the BBC definitely ditched CA when they moved to 2D, but you might be right about ITV 1 ? If it was FTV it certainly wasn't regionally restricted (as the BBC nations were)


Yes - BBC One and Two (and BBC Choice before BBC Two) England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were all FTV but postcode restricted to cards registered in their home countries.


Choice wasn't restricted, you could, and I did watch all four versions. A recall a certain Christine Bleakley
who was on Choice-NI as an in-vision continuity announcer.

You're absolutely right - BBC Choice was not nation-restricted. I too remember the "BBC Choice N IRELAND" DOG that was so huge they may as well have centred it...
NG
noggin Founding member

Why wasn't ITV on Sky Digital in the early days?

Markymark posted:
noggin posted:
Markymark posted:

For 'ITV' (the network, not the company) to be on satellite required 15+ transponders to be rented, plus conditional access to avoid (in theory) viewing outside of the UK. Back in 1998 the Astra 28.2 birds had Europewide beams. All very expensive from a starting point of virtually no viewers using the platform, plus of course the OnDigital DTT factor.

What changed was Astra 2D in 2001, that had a UK focused beam. By then Sky Digital's penetration
had increased, no CA was required, so the network launched on there. The BBC followed them onto 2D in 2003,
that enabled the Beeb to ditch CA, and (so it goes) the money saved enabled them to launch the English BBC 1 regions on there.


Didn't ITV launch on Sky with CA though?


ITV 2 certainly did, and the BBC definitely ditched CA when they moved to 2D, but you might be right about ITV 1 ? If it was FTV it certainly wasn't regionally restricted (as the BBC nations were)


Yes - BBC One and Two (and BBC Choice before BBC Two) England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were all FTV but postcode restricted to cards registered in their home countries.

** EDIT - BBC Choice wasn't nation-restricted - I remember watching all four national variants... **

The BBC had 'special' cards that let you watch any of the 8 channels on hidden channel numbers. The same was also true of Red Button feeds - they could be viewed on channel numbers too with the right card, so you could monitor them without having to navigate an application (or prior to an application being launched)

The BBC used FTV post code restriction because a number of sports deals then in place for BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were only for their territories, and not UK-wide. When they introduced FTA broadcasts on Astra 2D there were occasionally times when those sports were not available and a holding caption was broadcast pushing viewers to terrestrial. However as this also meant Sky viewers lost these programmes, the rights agreements were renegotiated at the earliest opportunity I believe.
Last edited by noggin on 23 July 2018 2:23pm
NG
noggin Founding member

Why wasn't ITV on Sky Digital in the early days?

Inspector Sands posted:
The red button regions didn't happen until at least 2002. I don't think it lasted that long before all the regional versions started,maybe 6 months.

I can't remember what happened with UK Today, I think that ended when the red button started and from then on BBC London became the default 'sustaining' region (as it was pre-digital, albeit as South East)


Yes - the UK Today sustaining service ended when Red Button regions started.
NG
noggin Founding member

UKTV channels set to leave Virgin Media on Sunday

AIUI one big sticking point is that the UKTV / Virgin agreement over UKTV pay-TV channel VOD content available on the Virgin platform is restricted? Virgin aren't happy about the content being on Netflix and/or Amazon Prime etc. but not on their platform, so want to pay less for the UKTV premium channels.
NG
noggin Founding member

UKTV channels set to leave Virgin Media on Sunday

Inspector Sands posted:
Interceptor posted:
I'm firmly on UKTV's side with this.

The 'free channels should be given to our customers for free' argument is nonsense; if you stop paying Sky, TalkTalk, BT, EE etc. you continue to be able to access those channels for free (it's possible you might need to obtain a different decoder, but the actual feed still works). If you stop paying Virgin Media, you no longer have access to anything (except possibly 101-105, while your line is alive).

I'm not sure how it works with the ip based services like EE and Talktalk, when you unsubscribe don't their boxes stop working too? I know BT gets some linear channels like Dave through the aerial so that's not you continuing to get them from your pay TV supplier, it's continuing to get them from DTT aka Freeview. Most Virgin customers will get that when they leave the company


I do agree though that there's not really any such thing as a 'free' channel on Virgin, but the fact one is free elsewhere does make a it a less sellable proposition when they're marketing their cable service.


A number of IP OTT or IP Multicast boxes also include DVB-T/T2 receivers (BT / YouView boxes, Sky Now TV Smart box etc.) that will receive Freeview broadcasts (Though Now TV isn't Freeview licensed so doesn't get a full Freeview EPG)
NG
noggin Founding member

UKTV channels set to leave Virgin Media on Sunday

JKDerry posted:
Can anyone hazard a guess when this mess will be resolved? Days, weeks, months? Trying to find information from both sides is like trying to get the truth from Donald Trump. I hate Virgin and UKTV with equal contempt. Always the customer is the poor sod in the middle. Nothing changes there. We are just the ones that pay for it.


I think the point is that neither side want to indicate a timescale - as that would give the other the upper hand in negotiations. The first we are likely to know that it has been resolved will be - when it has been resolved.
NG
noggin Founding member

Why wasn't ITV on Sky Digital in the early days?

Markymark posted:
Richard posted:
It did apply to UTV, STV, Grampian, Channel, Border, HTV, Meridian and Anglia which weren't owned by Carlton/Granada in 1998 either. C&G had to give their approval for any ITV region to appear on Sky.


For 'ITV' (the network, not the company) to be on satellite required 15+ transponders to be rented, plus conditional access to avoid (in theory) viewing outside of the UK. Back in 1998 the Astra 28.2 birds had Europewide beams. All very expensive from a starting point of virtually no viewers using the platform, plus of course the OnDigital DTT factor.

What changed was Astra 2D in 2001, that had a UK focused beam. By then Sky Digital's penetration
had increased, no CA was required, so the network launched on there. The BBC followed them onto 2D in 2003,
that enabled the Beeb to ditch CA, and (so it goes) the money saved enabled them to launch the English BBC 1 regions on there.


Didn't ITV launch on Sky with CA though?
NG
noggin Founding member

Jeremy Vine on 5

bilky asko posted:
noggin posted:
bilky asko posted:

Except the way the amounts were reported has changed, so Eggheads (for example) would no longer be included in that amount, which it was before.


Was Eggheads ever included? I thought all Indies (now including BBC Studios) who paid talent directly were not included in the reported figures. It was only direct payments from BBC Public Service that were reported I thought (i.e. News, Sport, Kids and talent deals independent of production companies?)

I think Eggheads, being a 12 Yard production, wouldn't have been included last year if those rules applied and if Jeremy was employed by 12 Yard rather than the BBC for that role?


Jeremy Vine said on his own show last year that it did include Eggheads. In fact, I mentioned it at the time:

see it here ……..

FORUMS on TVFORUM .UK
20-Jul-2018 @ 12:42

If that is the case - then I suspect that means 12 Yard didn't pay Jeremy and the BBC paid him separately as part of a talent deal. This may now have changed?
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Breakfast - 2018 Refresh

all new Phil posted:
Totally agree with all that. It’s a miserable show to watch. Don’t understand the ratings.


No adverts. No competitions. A roughly 30 minute schedule that gives you news, weather, local news, local travel and weather - basically all you need to know to start your day. Breakfast has presenters with the credibility and skills to do both a hard news item and a soft feature without you batting an eyelid. Louise Minchin in particular is a huge asset to the show.

Breakfast is also gentler with nothing to in your face and frenetic or busy before you've had your first cuppa.
NG
noggin Founding member

This Morning

TV Matters posted:
What happened to Marvin and Rochelle?
Have they quit this morning.


I doubt they 'quit' - as I doubt they have an on-going contractual relationship with the show. Either they weren't booked for the summer as ITV wanted to do something different or they didn't want to do it or had a clash with other bookings.

It would be unusual for 'cover' to be contracted permanently - and thus have something to quit.
Last edited by noggin on 20 July 2018 11:18pm
NG
noggin Founding member

UKTV channels set to leave Virgin Media on Sunday

Stuart posted:
Stuart posted:
james-2001 posted:
. . . but I have no way to record off Freeview, so I'd need to buy a Freeview PVR to be able to record them, which I don't particularly want to do.

Can you not watch on your TV using UKTV Play?


james-2001 posted:
No, it's not a smart TV. So again, I'd have to take out new subscriptions or buy new equipment to get the service I already have- which I shouldn't have to do.?

You don't need a a Smart TV, just a cable to connect your laptop/PC to an HDMI port on your TV. The cables are not expensive.


Or a cheap Chromecast if the UKTV apps support it?