TV Ratings

Only an absolute requirement if you have multiroom (so that they can confirm that all boxes are connected to the same landline - which is why you need a standard phone line with unblocked caller ID)

There MAY be a cost incentive to connect your phone (the early boxes had a BIB subsidy) - but there isn't an absolute requirement. When I bought my first Sky Digibox in 1998 I got a cheaper box because I agreed to keep it plugged into the phone for 12 months. I unplugged it 12 months later - and haven't plugged it back in since.



That wouldn't be clever stats - that would be clairvoyance...

There is no way that they can know if ANYONE is watching - apart from registering remote control usage. That will tell them someone is using the box - but not how many people are watching, and who.

[quote]
Sky wouldn't know if you're watching Sky News all day or whether you've just left the box on.
Don't Sky boxes have an automatic ‘Auto Standby’ feature?
[quote]

Yep - but it only kicks in after a couple of hours (or in the early morning?)



BARB do consolidated figures including all timeshift viewing within a 7 day(?) period - which come out about a fortnight later.

Officially yes, but really who does? When I had Sky they just gave me an extension lead but it rarely got plugged in. The phone connection at my parents setup has never worked... Sky never complained

Sky do have a monitoring system, but you have to register your interest, it's not automatic. I think it's run by TNS who work with BARB. www.skyviewerpanel.com

Sky are strict with multiroom customers, the boxes must be connected to the phone line at all times.

I'm guessing you/they didn't have Multiroom.

They're VERY strict when it comes to phoneline connections with that service. If you don't have all multiroom receivers on the same phoneline they send you nagging letters (they make the receivers dial out sporadically to check they are connected to the same phone line - using caller ID) which threaten to charge you the full subscription for each receiver if you don't.

We had multiroom for a while when we first got Sky+ and moved the old SD digibox to another room. We redecorated, rearranged the rooms and didn't particularly want to fit new extensions just for a TV. So we left them unplugged. Got a nagging letter - and decided we didn't actually use multiroom enough to justify the £10/month it cost (I think) - so we dropped the old SD box to a Solus/FTV card (i.e. just the FTA and FTV channels) - and then after a while we disconnected it all together...

It's to avoid people buying a couple of multiroom subscriptions and then selling on the service at a profit by letting people use the receivers at other addresses...

Other than multiroom I don't think Sky have much interest in phone line connection - though the people who operate interactive services requiring a back-channel do (including Sky Bet)

Interesting, it seems like a bit of a convoluted way of doing it but I can't think of any other way to prevent that happening. I assume they don't specify a BT phone line any more?


I only ever used it to play Avago! It won't be as important as it once was - there's no separate BIB business and Box Office is being largely superseeded by things like Anytime and VOD