ITV was about the update the box encryption before they went bust. It could be done with the existing hardware via an update. This would update the boxes to unhacked encryption.
ITV was about the update the box encryption before they went bust. It could be done with the existing hardware via an update. This would update the boxes to unhacked encryption.
That would help get them started. At the end of the day though, it's the same basic encryption system which is known inside out by too many people (I believe it was developed in France in the 1980's); someone will break it again.
Fortunately though, it does mean that A) existing gold cards won't work and B) someone will actually have to take the time to hack it again.
Piracy is the biggest problem they are going to face.
As I said, they may not be targeting the ITV digital boxes, just the type of people that had them.
This could mean that they have their own boxes made.
No, I'm fairly sure they are intending to target the old boxes. No way in hell can they break even on 300,000 subscribers if they are having boxes made, nor can they viably launch in April. It seems fairly clear to me that they are intending to operate like Freeview - as a content provider and not a platform, where their biggest liabilities are licencing their space and licencing their channels, I doubt they'll make any equipment.
OK, assuming that they do manage to get two slots on D3&4, and 4 on SDN (5 if those radio stations could be accomodated elsewhere and a TV channel squeezed in, but I don't know how many radio stations you'd need to fit in a TV channel), but with two of them being not in Wales only(hopefully they could get another TV channel into the space of those radio stations and keep QVC on), what do people think is a viable channel lineup and where would they go?
I think this arrangement is quite a good viable one:
Sky One - D3&4
E4 - D3&4
UK Gold - SDN
Nickelodeon/Paramount - SDN
Home&Leisure/Discovery Channel - SDN (possibly not in Wales)
Cartoon Network/TCM/CNN International - SDN (not in Wales).
This would enable them to plug their service as having 10 channels as they wanted, whilst only using 6 running at any given time. The split channels may or may not have individual LCNs each (although if it's possible to select channels out of the lineup as you could with On Digital, then all the channels on a split must count as one choice and so it's best if they are on one LCN), and I'd operate the splits as follows:
With at least one and possibly two slots not being available in Wales, it would be necessary to offer a reduced tariff for Welsh viewers, and if they are going to do that, then it should be looked into as to whether they should operate a 'pick and choose' type system as On Digital did. Perhaps they could charge £2.50 for one channel (with all the channels in a split counting as one obviously), or £10 for the lot (which could be advertised as '10 for all 10'), with maybe a concession for what is every available channel in Wales.
Would this be viable? Have they fixed this as a one stop subscription price or are they allowing for packages in this lineup (as I've said, they've got to at least have a Welsh tarrif and a rest of UK tarrif since Welsh subscribers wouldn't be able to get all the channels), would they tie people into year long contracts (I personally thing a shorter contract period of 6 months would prove more popular, it doesn't seem as daunting as a year) or not?
As sure as I am that this will happen, details are still a bit too vague for my liking, I'm interested in hearing a provisional channel lineup and a provisional price scheme, rather than just 'around 10 channels for around £8-£10'.
Sky One
UK Gold
E4
Nickeloden/Paramount (yep, the good old 7PM handover will come back)
Cartoon Network/TCM (the gold old 8PM split - maybe even CNN overnight)
Discovery (maybe they'll do a Sky Analogue thing and stick Home&Leisure on during the day, changing to Discovery Channel at 4PM)
That gives them 8 channels (9 with the split on Discovery). Beyond that, I daresay there MIGHT be one other channel (unless it's a timeshare). Maybe MTV, maybe Plus TV (with a Men&Motors split?). Who knows.
That'd still do me nicely. Sky One, UK Gold, E4 and Nick are the only channels I want anyway.
I must say, this is all happening incredibly quickly!
If you're right about them targeting the ITV boxes then I'm all for it. As I said, it will mean upgrades whatever they decide to do and that means we have the slightest chance of an MHEG upgrade too.
Everything went at the ITV Digital auciton. Somebody bought the software updates that had been made too. I remember people commenting "what a useless thing to buy - it's not even as if it's ITV Digital memorabelia" ... could it be that this has been planned for a very long time then?
It does seem that they've borrowed their first bit of ITV... "A few more channels, a lot more TV." - I remember ITV pushing their "We haven't got a lot of channels, but they're good ones" theme too.
If you're right about them targeting the ITV boxes then I'm all for it. As I said, it will mean upgrades whatever they decide to do and that means we have the slightest chance of an MHEG upgrade too.
It doesn't mean there'll be upgrades, I'm not even sure if they can have access to the software on the boxes, copyright ownership of it is surely a patchy issue now?
Quote:
Everything went at the ITV Digital auciton. Somebody bought the software updates that had been made too. I remember people commenting "what a useless thing to buy - it's not even as if it's ITV Digital memorabelia" ... could it be that this has been planned for a very long time then?
Possibly, or maybe someone bought the updates hoping to sell them on again if anyone did decide to replace the software on the boxes.
Quote:
It does seem that they've borrowed their first bit of ITV... "A few more channels, a lot more TV." - I remember ITV pushing their "We haven't got a lot of channels, but they're good ones" theme too.
Not technically correct; ITV Digital's sole campaign was to push the ITV Sport Channel and how they had more football than Sky. On Digital's original campaign was to push their smaller selection of channels as a virtue - but they argued on the lines of 'Sky with it's array of channels is for geeks sat in attics, On Digital has a few channel which is what normal people want'. It of course did insult all existing Sky Analogue customers (which numbered to about 3 million I think), and whilst ITVD did have a nice little lineup in the end, at launch it lacked a lot of the big name channels it got later on, this was the launch lineup:
ITV2
Shop
First On Digital
Cartoon Network
FilmFour
BBC Choice
BBC News 24
Sky One
Sky Sports 1
Sky Sports 3 (no, I haven't missed one out, they didn't have SS2 at launch)
Sky Premier
Sky MovieMax
UK Gold
UK Style/Horizons (timesharing with Style Monday-Wednesday and Horizons Thursday-Sunday)
British Eurosport
Granada Plus
Granada Breeze/Granada Men&Motors (timeshare)
Carlton Cinema
Carlton Kids/Carlton World (timeshare)
Carlton Food Network
Not
too
bad, but that's hardly a representative enough sample of channels to be able to slam Sky down with - many channels on Sky but not on OD could hardly be described as frivoulous extras; OD had no Nickelodeon, no paramount, only 2 of the 3 Sky Sports channels, only 2 of the 3 Sky movie channels, no Sky News, no MTV, I could go on.