Sky Picnic Scrapped

MediaGuardian article



Obviously sad news for those affected by the job losses, but good news for those who still want to watch Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky3 on Freeview, presuming Sky still wants to retain its slots on DTT.

Good news for Freeview, introducing another pay service on terrestrial would have just added to the confusion that already exists surrounding digital switchover.

It does make me wonder what exactly all those people working on Picnic were doing all this time. I do know that Sky were 'white networking' (test running) the service but as most of it was simulcast surely it wouldn't have taken 68 people

Yes, sad that people will lose their jobs but this surely must be seen as a victory for Freeview (with emphasis on Free). Let's hope Sky don't pick up their ball and go home again.

I was always dubious as to Picnic's viability. I see no reason why anyone who wants Sport, Movies and more Sky entertainment wouldn't just get a proper satellite package, rather than an inferior cut-down version via DTT.

Yes there are a few people who can't have a satellite dish on their house for whatever reason, but it's such a small minority, I can't see this small corner of the market being able to sustain the venture.

Indeed, it's where Ondigtal and Top Up Tv have gone wrong in the past. Why anyone would buy a new digibox and pay a subscription for such a limited service?



Especially considering that that market (which I am a part of) is also covered by cable.

Common sense prevails. Thanks god though Sky took the decision before OFCOM gave them the go-ahead, which I'm sure they would have.

Sky really must get to grips now with a seventh mux auction and put their money where their mouth is. I was against the proposal intially but had come around to supporting Picnic, mainly for those who have no access because of location, planning and landlord issues to cable and satellite.

The issue needs to be resolved technically if not politically before the third generation freeview HD boixes, pvrs and idtvs are produced. These must be capapble of handling ALL payment systems for CA Television.

Even if Sky did buy up the spectrum to launch a seventh mux with around 10 channels on, it would never be an adequate alternative to Sky - it should be down to a relaxation in the law to solve the problems cause by planning red tape.

Presumably developing EPG, working on SD H264 implementation, encryption, a customer management system, specing receiver tech, interactive stuff etc.?

That would explain the 40 contractors?

Presumably there were admin, business development, management etc. as well?

(Though ISTR that TUTV had fewer than 5 full-time staff when it launched? That said - they were using the same video codec as Freeview and the same encryption system as ONDigital so didn't really have to develop anything, just set-up a subscriber management system and sort out encryption kit?)

A problem which would have dogged picnic is that the premium content included meant that it couldn't be much cheaper than a full blown Sky or Virgin subscription. So who would they sell to? If the 'I don't want a dish on my house' brigage wasn't big enough to sell people OnDigital in 1998, then it must be smaller still in 2008.

It's user base would in all likelihood have been almost entirely comprised of people with no other option for pay TV.

Whilst this category certainly exists, and is big enough to prop up a cheap and chearful operation like Top Up TV, I can't see a premium content pay service being viable without mainstream interest.

Picnic would have just been like On Digital.