Well there was a suggestion today in the FT that Sky are not as interested in Picnic as they once were and that their main focus would be having the decision on wholesale prices reversed. Mike Darcey from BSkyB also pointed out that the market now is very different to the one in 2006 when they proposed Picnic.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d3735736-3551-11df-9cfb-00144feabdc0.html
I think the circumstances for Sky News have also changed, while things are far from perfect they are a lot better than they were in 2006 when Picnic was proposed. The channel was then in a sorry state and with Picnic imminent there seemed to be serious questions about whether Sky News even had a future. However things have changed, Sky News is better today than it was during that period where they began reversing every aspect of the 2005 relaunch and where the channel lost it's identity, and I think the investments in the studio and the upcoming HD launch showed that BSkyB still wanted to invest in Sky News. While ratings are not exceptional they have stabilized.
I do agree that coming off Freeview would cause significant problems particularly because if Im not mistaken the original plan was that Sky News would not even feature 24/7 on Picnic itself. But perhaps the possibility of Sky buying Virgin Media' channels, giving them additional Freeview capacity, might mean Sky News could remain on Freeview even if Picnic goes ahead.
My hope would be that the HD channel becomes the premium aspect of Sky News and that they leave the SD version as it is, at least then Sky News could claim to add some value to Sky through being a draw to Sky+HD. There is also the possibility that international carriage of SN HD, such as reportedly from the second half of this year in the Middle East, will add to Sky News' profitability. Im also cautiously optimistic that if they do it right they might be able to attract some of the 2 million or so HD homes who may not usually get there news from Sky but are drawn by the HD tag.
