I realise that there are a lot of knowledgable people on here and as I am now led to believe, TopUpTV is changing the way it broadcasts later in the year. As I am a TopUpTv subscriber, I was wondering if anyone could be kind enough to advise me on what the changes will mean to me and how I will get (or not)the service when the changes take place.
Thanking all you clever chaps in anticipation.
Well, Top Up are remaining fairly tight-lipped about the whole thing, and their e-mails are notoriously vague... which probably means they're expecting a bit of a backlash to be honest.
As you probably know, Top Up currently have 4x 24-hour slots on DTT which they use to broadcast "11" channels on timeshares. They rent these slots from Five.
Well now Five want some of them back (to launch Five US and Five Life). We don't know if they want 2x 24-hour slots, or if the two new channels will timeshare, or what. But we do know that this will seriously hinder the existing TUTV line-up.
It's been rumoured that Setanta will become a 24-hour subscription channel, TCM own their slot, so they're not going anywhere, but as for the rest... no-one's really sure. The new TUTV Anytime service will use one (?) slot overnight to download programmes to a HDD PVR, but you need the TUTV branded Anytime box in order to use this service.
Top Up have said there will be "changes", and some "new channels", plus a "limited" service for those subscribers who don't upgrade to the Anytime box. Read into that what you will, but it doesn't look great (for Top Up) in my opinion.
Edit:
According to Digital Spy, Five US (and presumably, Five Life) will launch next month, so we'll know what's going on by then!
To put it simply, the current Top Up TV service is ceasing transmission and being replaced by Top Up TV Anytime.
This is a download service in which viewers (with a new set top box) will be able to download a number of programmes from selected channels. These programmes will be broadcast overnight and basically you'll tape them onto a hard disk recorder.
Not sure whether it'll be a subscription service or a pay-per-download service though.
Yes and no. Two have already been claimed by Five, while Setanta is favourite to grab one of the other two. The 1/2 stream on which TCM airs is believed to be owned by TCM themselves.
Hmm, so unless the subscribers to the new service are going to be happy with a small number of new programmes a day, they are going to have to send the programmes much quicker than realtime, and hence at a much lower bandwitdh - I can't believe there's massive headroom on each of the channels even if they can use all the space reserved for extra audio and teletext and stuff. So does that mean we can expect substandard picture quality? Some of the live stuff on Freeview is bad enough.
They must be pretty annoyed about this, having said that I'm sure the possibility of this happening will have been in the original contract between them and Five.
TUTV has always seemed to me to be the worst possible way in which to get extra channels - in terms of value-for-money anyway. Then again I've always lived in cabled areas and in properties where I can install dishes so I guess I've always had the choice.
I thought TCM's stream was owned by Disney (abc1) - rented out to TUTV for TCM? I always thought TUTV just grabbed the 4.5 streams available to them in 2004 to launch their service, renting them off Five and Disney, and off SDN.
I think the SDN mux is quite a complex arrangement. Everyone seems to rent space of someone renting space of someone else!
My understanding of the Top Up TV Anytime service is what it will do is basically broadcast a number of programmes overnight on two or three channels, which viewers can watch by recording them onto their hard drive recorder.
Whether subscribers will be able to watch them live I don't know, and also I doubt that if programmes clash you'll be able to tape both of them!
It's difficult to say if it will work - as a non TUTV subscriber it's probably more appealling, but it depends on what stations they link up with.
If it is successful might we see other broadcasters using their own downtime to offer some sort of service. For example, Film4 are due to launch an On Demand service later this year and perhaps this sort of download model could be used to offer a mini service on Freeview, with Film4 broadcasting some encrypted films during it's downtime which can be recorded in a similar way (for a small fee of course!)
It sounds like an utterly useless service, I can't see it lasting.
neither can I. Unless TUTV have purcahsed these new boxes on the cheap and plan to sell them at a premium to recoup some losses before they go bust, I can't even see why they're pretending they can survive.