Loading ...The Guardian have published an interesting interview with Emma Scott, Managing Director of Freesat.
Some interesting points made include:
“Freesat is a free platform and we want people to understand that. If we find there is an interest in pay TV services as a supplemental, then we’ll address it”.
“Sky is a pay-television subscription service and their primary aim is to deliver value to their shareholders through driving subscription income. Their core offering is around sport and movies. If that what’s you want, that’s brilliant. The free market is very different and I don’t think that’s a core market for Sky”.
“A version of the BBC’s iPlayer could be delivered to Freesat viewers within months”.
“Freeview will become the new analogue. You’ve got to pay at the other end of the spectrum with great choice and premium movies. We see Freesat sitting in the middle, offering more channels, more flexibility, more HD. It just offers more choice in the market for consumers”.
Read the full article here.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
“more HD”…. Just how many HD channels can we expect in 6 months?
SkyHD currently provides 12 HD channels
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Its all very well telling people about it,if I could find somewhere that had one in stock I may agree how good it is
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Actually Sky has 18 HD channels.
The only HD channel which may join Freesat is LUX HD which is not very interesting. ITV have said that ITV HD is not a proper channel as they only have enough content for the occasional program mainly sports.
I think to comment about pay tv is a smoke screen. Greg Dyke has stated that the reason freeview boxes don’t have a card slot is to preserve the Licence fee and prevent the Government making BBC a pay tv service. I think they are applying the same principle to Freesat.
I don’t think there is any reason why manufacturers could not include a card slot or have an external device connected to the ethernet port.
Personally I would like Freesat turned into a not for profit company independent of any content provider.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I dont think I have ever know a product launch,launch so badly.
There is no stock in any shops
The staff do not have an idea of what you are talking about
The stores that do have it as a product line cant decide on the web sites if
it is in stock or not or when it will be in!
The only reason I see for buying is the hd
Am I wrong thinking that or is there more to it?
May 12th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
hi Admin - can you give us the URL for the article? sounds interesting.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
ok - sorry. I clicked the Guardian link - just seen the article link!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
nice article-glad to see that at last freesat is getting some press atention
May 12th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Trevor, I think Freesat are a not-for-profit company. Their emphasis seems to be towards public service broadcasting, of which BBC and ITV are main players. Maybe Channels 4 and 5 should get in on the act too…
May 13th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Gordon I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Channel 4 HD before too long given that the other Channel 4 channels are available on Freesat.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Channel 5 go for HD broadcasting as well.
However, this is just speculation.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Trevor, no offence when I say this but I get the feeling you are a subscription TV subscriber or employee as you seem to take the opportunity to play down Freesat at every juncture.
You also seem to want to see Freesat to become subscription based via a card slot and subscription card.
The very atttraction of Freesat to most people is the fact that its NOT subscription.
A majority of the people in this country either can’t afford or don’t want to have to pay extra for their tv content but still want a quality tv service that rivals companies like Sky and why shouldn’t they have it? Why should public service / advertising based broadcasting always have to be a poor second best?
At the end of the day Sky and other subscription providers can differentiate themselves based on the uniqueness of their programming in special interest areas such as The Premiership, which will always probably be beyond the financial means of the Freesat partnership, but that doesn’t mean that the population as a whole shouldn’t have free access to parallel programming covering the same areas such as National Matches, The Champions League etc etc. and that this same principle shouldn’t be carried across the board for all programming areas..
Let the uniqueness and quality of subscription programming do the talking as no doubt if its good enough, people will still subscribe. For the rest of us, there should be Freesat with no subscription and equally good programming that parallels the subscription offerings if not exactly matching it.
Starting subscription programming means starting down the slippery slope to pay for tv such as Sky and the re-establishment of the line between the have and the have nots.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
???????????
do all the chanles that are part of one of “sky’s mixes” (ie you have to pay to get them) get money from sky for this?
ITV - is free on sky and terestal but it carrys adverts that pays for it =$
Sky 1 - you have to pay for it in one of sky’s mixes + it shows adverts =$$
Dave, Sci Fi Channel, UKTV Gold. - you have to pay for it in one of sky’s mixes + it shows adverts + it’s all repeats of programs that should of alredy payed for themselfs befor been aired in the UK on Sky =$$$
Or do sky keep the $ for including them in the mix?
May 14th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Sky HD is mostly repeats had it from day one.Just cancelled as all you get is repeats more repeats and more repeats.Its a big just like throwing money down the drain.