On satellite Sky already have a subscription contract in place, whereby Dave etc get paid not only advertising revenue from a potential 9million viewers, but also subscription revenue. To break this arrangement and go on Freesat, would mean loosing all subscription revenue and at this time only benefit from an potential additional 100,000 viewers (current Freesat figures). There would be no financial benefit for them.

Maybe in the future this will change. If a large proportion of Freeview and non-digital viewers signed up for Freesat, then the potential advertising revenue might be of interest to these small subscription channels.

I’m a little confused as to why Dave and UKTV History aren’t likely to be added to Freesat. UKTV say that they rely on pay TV to partly fund their service which is fair enough, but as Dave and UKTV History are both on Freeview how come they can’t be on Freesat aswell?

Clearly these channels are either wholly supported by advertising or are subsidised by the other UKTV pay channels. Either way, they’re free on Freeview so I see no reason why we can’t expect them to be on Freesat too.

Can a definitive answer be obtained from UKTV/Freesat? (UKTV’s web site mentions all this, but doesn’t give a valid reason.)

1. Freesat is promoted and set up as a direct competitor to Sky HD and Freeview

2. All major Freeview channels are mirrored

3. There’s a choice of high quality PVR combos

4. Its promoted and advertised properly

5. It offers a quality of service in both content and technical (picture / sound) content that rivals and all other broadcast competitors

6. It promises a full HD service across all channels, all day (not just previews and selected programs) (obviously this will be a promise for the future as I would expect a gradual roll out, but I would expect a not too distant completion date)

1. “Humax are the only manufacturer of the DTR/PVR receiver”

- Why? Whatever happened to choice. Given the current reported problems with the Foxsat HD box and allegedly less than perfect SD picture / SD & HD sound, I’d be reluctant to commit to buying a Humax PVR combo.

2. “It’s not Freesat’s intention to mirror Freeview’s channels in any way. They treat digital terrestrial and digital satellite as two very different platforms as different regulations and agreements are in place. They know that gaining existing subscription channels like Dave, UK History etc will be almost impossible due to the way in which they are funded”.

- Whereas I’m not bothered about total mirroring especially of the shopping channels, I do think that all the major channels need to be mirrored, otherwise Freesat doesn’t become a viable option.

3. “Whilst Freesat didn’t comment, FIVE has said that FIVER and FIVE US won’t be.”

- Building on my comment in 2., this has to be a big mistake as these are headline channels.

4. “Freesat will continue to allow Sky to use the word “freesat” in their promotions of their own free service.”

- this is sheer stupidity. There have already been people on other forums who’ve bought the Sky Freesat Package thinking they were getting the BBC Freesat package.

5. “Freesat do not see their service as overtaking or replacing Freeview, nor as a competitor to Sky; they see it as a choice for the general consumer.”

- Again sheer stupidity. We already know that Freeview has insufficient bandwidth for an across the board HD service. HD is the future and Freesat needs to be used to embrace that. Freeview should be promoted as the SD solution and Freesat as the HD future.

If Freesat is to prosper, it needs to provide the consumer with a direct competitor to Sky.

People are not going to buy into another choice that offers nothing more than they have already. What the people of this country really want, is a service that can rival many of Sky’s offerings but without the subscription price.

There’s no attraction to just another mediocre public service.

6. “Freesat have a very small marketing budget which doesn’t allow them enough funds to promote the service in its own right via television media.”

- Then they need to go back to the BBC trust and ask for funding to allow for a proper advertising budget.

7. “ITV television advertising is too expensive, and BBC is unable to promote the Freesat brand due to their unbiased policy.”

- Total bullsh*t in my opinion.

ITV are partners in the service so why should ITV advertising cost a penny? By dropping 1 programme a day from their schedule (which would actually save them money in production costs), they could free up air time for Freesat adverts without any loss of existing commercial advertising revenue time. Result savings on production costs and free advertsing space for Freesat. Everyone’s a winner.

As for the BBC being unable to promote Freesat due to its unbiased policy.

What is biased about advertising your own product / service?

To present news stories etc in an unbiased way is one thing, but to say that you can’t advertise what you do for fear of actually competing with rivals is another…and don’t the BBC do this already? Surely by this standard when they advertise Doctor Who as they have done recently isn’t this bias as they advertising a premium programme that their rivals don’t have?

Some one needs to sort out the loony left at the BBC as they’re taking political correctness way too far in my opinion.

Does this mean that they are scrambled?

I’ve no luck with receiving ITV HD either.