OFCOM to consult on Sky DTT plans

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2111863,00.html


The Sky DTT thing has cropped up again, with OFCOM now saying they will open public consultation on the plans and report next year - and Sky saying how dare OFCOM want to consult on something!


Why OFCOM just don't throw it out I don't know - but when the consultation does come around I think it's worth trying to get your point in as so often you only here about these "consultations" after they've closed and OFCOM announce they've only had something like 30 comments!


My objection is simple. Firstly, it's the Sky monopoly, but secondly, it's the reality of the idea - it's not going to be priced at a rate which would stop people subscribing to the full Sky Digital service, so anyone who really wants it might as well shell out for Sky instead.


IMO the solution is simple - Sky make a "Sky by Wire" service (as seen on Homechoice) available for (the increasing) Freeview/IPTV market - and therefore there is no need to remove their three Sky channels on Freeview.

I have no objections to it, mainly because as a raging capitalist b*stard, I think Sky should be free to do whatever they want with the platform. If anything, these kinds of consultations which are unnoticed by the masses will only really attract the vocal opponents to these plans, so it's not going to be particularly representative of opinion.

Sky can do what the hell they like and want to Satellite, that's fine by me. But with the Terrestrial spectrum that really winds me up, it's been a huge success since it went Free to Air rather than Pay TV and to remove three of the some of the most popular channels would be damaging to Freeview I believe.

If you want Pay TV get a Dish or Cable, Terrestrial should stay free, if Sky don't like that, they know where to go.

I don't mind the revised plan (of an MPEG2 subscription service) so much, the original plan of moving to MPEG4 was just nuts. It would have added even more confusion to the market which is complicated enough at times.

But apart from the usual suspects such as BBC Three and E4, isn't the rest of Freeview shopping channels and quiz tv nonsense?

Well NO, theirs
BBC 4
ITV 2
ITV3
ITV4
sky news
BBC News
More 4
Film 4 I'm sure:??
ABC1
2 music channels
UKTV history!
UKTV Bright Ideas

2 bbc kids channels
CITV channel

so actually it aright!"

I think though Sky Three especially is important now - it's probably seen as of less importance than Sky News and Sky Sports News, but with the days of US imports debuting on Sky One then cropping up on a terrestrial channel a few months later now well and truly over, it's important IMO that Sky have a free to air channel where they can rerun shows they have exclusive rights too.


I also think Sky Three is a pretty useful tool in promoting Sky One programming especially - and IMO Sky are likely to get more people to sign up via the presence of Sky Three and Sky Sports News than they are with their Sky Lite DTT offering.