More Free tv on freeview then on virgin

Well, in theory, it's only an extra £1 a month per pack on Sky. And whilst the prices for Sky Sports and Sky Movies can be understandable, considering the cost of supplying such content, charging for HD, Multiroom etc is what should be regarded as the more inappropriate pricing techniques.

What I meant was, picture someone who just wants Sky Movies and/or Sky Sports. Why should that subscriber have to pay for dozens of channels he doesn't want (e.g. Sky One) to be able to get what he wants (Sky Movies/Sports)? Wouldn't it be fairer to have the option of subscribing to just Sky Movies or Sky Sports if that's all you want?

The question Sky cares about answering is: Can we really get away with charging for so many of our channels? And the answer, it would seem, is yes.



Yes, and it would also be fairer if everyone had unlimited rice pudding and Jeremy Kyle never came back from America, but I can't see any of these things happening. Sky aren't under any obligation to be "fair", at least not in the rose-tinted sense you mean.

David

If you were very observant you would have noticed that 'Freeview' contains the word 'free'... isn't that a bit of a giveaway?

Isn't it a bit hypocritical for someone called " Sat Gold" to be subscribing (or, in your case, welching) to cable?

I find this surprising actually.

BBC iPlayer is apparently absent from the Xbox360 because Microsoft wanted to charge for it (by only making it available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers) but the BBC wanted it to be free, so it is odd that the BBC are already in the position where a private company is withholding their content from license fee payers who haven't also paid the private company.

There is a big difference between cable and satellite/terrestrial systems.

Satellite is an open system, anyone (with a massive amount of money) can put a satellite in the sky and anyone (with considerably less money) can rent transponder space. Anyone can purchase any compatabile equipment to receive satellite transmissions.

Terrestrial's a bit less open, as the small space means that the government restrict who is able to own a multiplex and who can broadcast. But in theory, if you can do a deal with a multiplex owner, and can obtain a broadcasting licene, you can go on Freeview. Again, you can access the system with any compabile equipment and the specifications for this equipment (the D-Book) is openly available.

Cable is very different...

On cable, your cable company (which nowadays means Virgin Media or UPC) is owner and operator of the platform. You must purchase a subscription to even get a connection to the service. You must use the equipement (STB) provided by the cable company to access the service and third-party equipment is usually banned under the terms and conditions of the service. Channels wishing to broadcast (a bad choice of words) on cable must do a deal with the cable company. This agreement will specifiy the package the channel will be available on and the EPG slot they will be given. In the UK and Ireland, there's no open access to the cable platform and your cable company will the only person you will deal with to gain access to the system. There are - usually - no free channels on cable. If you cancel your subscription your viewing card will deauthorised and (depending on Virgin/UPC's local policy) a service agent will eventually be sent to physically cut the cable to your property.

The synomity of "Sky" and "satellite" in the UK and Ireland has distorting things a bit - Sky have done everything in their power to make satellite look like a wireless cable service, by running as much of a closed system as is possible given the fact that it is an open platform. They provide branded equipment (the Sky Digibox) for example, just like a cable company. Given that their business is pay-TV (which many people are only now realising, as Sky did the very clever marketing trick of positioning and marketing themselves as a broadcaster rather than a platform for most of the 1990s.) this is completely in their interest.

But unlike a cable company they don't demand their equipment back and as it's a satellite reciever, you can still use the Sky equipment to receive free to air satellite stations (such as the BBC) after you cancel. This contrasts with cable, where everything is encrypted, once you cancel, you won't receive anything (except maybe a test channel or two) and you'll be asked to return the equipment and be eventually cut off.

I don't find it surprising at all.

As rdd has already explained, rather eloquently, you are paying Virgin for the delivery of iPlayer, not the service itself. I get iPlayer via my broadband, if I stop paying Sky for that service then I can't access it. It has nothing to do with the fact that iPlayer is free.

I don't think the delivery explanation quite cuts it, Microsoft would argue they deliver that Live is a delivery platform (even though it's effectively just a selective gateway).

The key, I think, is that Virgin perpetually own everything on their system; the cable, the headends, the in-home equipment - everything. Sky, on the other hand, own nothing. When you take out a Sky subscription, Sky sell you the equipment necessary to use their service (often subsidised to a price of 0, these days). Your monthly fee is merely a subscription to the content.

Similarly, Microsoft's Live Gold package is just a subscription, the box is sold to you beforehand.

Virgin Media, on the other hand, don't sell you anything. Part of your bill will show a rental charge for the equipment, and their terms of service state that if you don't keep up with this rental they reserve the right to deactivate the equipment (and then deactivate your line, and take back their equipment completely).

Back in the Cable Midlands/Telewest days, when I had analogue cable, you could put the box into standby but still receive at least one channel that wasn't on proper analogue. (Think it was BBC News 24(as was) at the time?)

When we ditched digital cable(for technical reasons) no one came to cut the cable to my knowledge. Surely they would 'fix it' at the green cabinet down the road?

The signal would still be there going down the cables, but your viewing card would be deactivated, so your box wouldn't be able to receive anything.

They leave the actual cables in place, in case you change your mind and want to go back, or you move out and the new occupants do, so they don't have to do any physical work.

If you're lucky, they'll ask for their box back, but in the three separate occasions I've subscribed to NTL and Virgin, they've never asked me for a set-top box or cable modem back - I still have the most recent equipment that was disconnected from my old flat in August. On the other hand, I wish I'd held onto an old Sky box I had when I moved out of a house a few years ago, instead of leaving it there.