Picnic

Sky are attempting to grab attention away from the launch of virgin 1 today with the announcement of picnic. A launch date has not yet been mentiond but a possible channel line up has, Sky Movies, Sky Sports 1, Sky one, a childrens channel and a factual channel. These will all timeshare with one another. Sky's Press Release

What a stupid name. Nowhere near as good as "Dave".

Picnic would be the name of the triple-strand service (Broadband, TV & Phone) rather than the name of a TV Channel.

They would still be branded as Sky One, News and Movies, together with a Childrens' Channel (CITV??) and a factual channel.

MediaGuardian article

I'm surprised to see the set top boxes for the service are to be made by Sagem initially, and not Amstrad which is now owned by Sky.

This would be a real blow to Sky News would it not?

Cutting out all Freeview viewers, would this not signal the end of Sky News? The channel makes a lose, it not available on Virgin and would only be available on Sky...... but as I type I think that Sky News used to only be on Sky and it survived so maybe what i said it pure rubbish....

But what I don't understand is that people who want Sky channels, get Sky.

Have also noticed that the Sky brand is not on this.

Probably on purpose so if it goes tits up it doesn't make a mess of the Sky brand

This is even **** than I thought it would be.


Destined for failure - Top Up TV completely fell apart and even with Sky's backing I can't see this being any different. It's about taking channels off Freeview, not adding to it!

If Sky were serious about it they'd be considering purchasing the capacity for a new mux after DSO and launching the service using that space.


And as I've said all along, this isn't going to be priced favourably compared to Sky - it'll probably be around £15-£20 a month, a price at which you might as well opt for Sky Digital itself - even if that means not getting Sky Sports or Sky Movies.


To be honest Sky's best option would be to keep their Freeview channels but offer a decent Sky Anytime service on Freeview with some decent On-Demand service from Sky One, Sky Movies and possibly Sky Sports too - with taking Sky Three and Sky Sports News off-air for a few hours a night used to broadcast the content.

Get your objections into OFCOM and let's see if they listen:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/dtv/


My main objections are the removal of the channels from Freeview and the limitations of the service making it pointless. I also raise the question that if Sky want to tap into the "lite" pay-TV market, why don't they do it on their own platform.


As for alternatives, I think a "Sky by Wire" service via BT Vision (streaming the channels over broadband) or a Sky Anytime service - similar to Top Up TV using Sky Three's or Sky Sports News overnight space, but having to be a viable alternative to Sky so hence providing the decent Sky One and Sky Movies content - and selected Sky Sports content too (e.g. extended Premiership highlights)



P.S. And in a move which looks incredibly anti-competitive, they've blocked access to the EPG for new channels now, saying older boxes can't cope:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a77042/sky-to-refuse-new-epg-slot-applications.html

They've already caused several obstructions when channels such as More4, ITV3 and ITV4 launched - with Sky not getting them on the EPG in time for launch or in the case of More4, bundling it in with the Sky package despite giving C4 the impression it would be FTV.



It really does all boil down to the same classic thing - as content supplier and platform supplier Sky have a conflict of interests, and as such should be split into two clear independent companies.

Since Ofcom are consulting the public on this, can we add a poll to this thread and send a collective response, which would possibly encourage Ofcom to read the comments raised in the thread?