BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

In uk.tech.digital-tv Adrian A wrote:

: Sky don't _own_ any transponders, they rent them from SES.

And that's being pedantic to the point of stupidity!

I regard a many-year exclusive contract with SES as being as good as
"owning" - no-one else can do ANYTHING with that transponder without Skys
approval!

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 22:25:44 +0000, Paul Martin wrote:

In article ,
Brian McIlwrath wrote:
In uk.tech.digital-tv Clive. wrote:
: Also C4HD will be on a BSkyB owned transponder (and thus must be uplinked
: by them). To go FTA in the future they will need to find transponders for
: this (and all their other channels) on Astra 2D and organise other
: uplinking!
: According to "What Satellite" a large number of the Sky digital channels
: are transmitted from the co-located Eurobird1.

This is true! However ONLY Astra 2D has transponders which are (more) tightly
focused on the UK and the only way that mainstream broadcasters (presently
BBC and ITV) can become FTA. Otherwise the costs of acquiring programmes
would become silly. Whilst the progammes are encrypted this is accepted
as a "confined to the UK" argument.

It is likely that C4 will need to find one or more Astra 2D transponders
- or another solution - before they can become FTA (and thus available to
Freesat).

Does anyone here know whether Astra 2C, recently moved to 28.2E, has a
tight footprint like 2D or a Europe-wide one like 2A and 2B?

It has a pan-European coverage. In fact the south beam even covers part of North Africa with a 120cm
dish. http://www.astra2d.com/astra2c.htm
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

Brian McIlwrath wrote:
In uk.tech.digital-tv Adrian A wrote:

: Sky don't _own_ any transponders, they rent them from SES.

And that's being pedantic to the point of stupidity!

I regard a many-year exclusive contract with SES as being as good as
"owning" - no-one else can do ANYTHING with that transponder without Skys
approval!

Out of interest what is Skys contract with SES? (very roughly only of course)

Given that it is such a critical part of their business I do find it
interesting that they don't have ownership of this aspect of it.


cheers

David

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:40:15 +0000, DM wrote:

Brian McIlwrath wrote:
In uk.tech.digital-tv Adrian A wrote:

: Sky don't _own_ any transponders, they rent them from SES.

And that's being pedantic to the point of stupidity!

I regard a many-year exclusive contract with SES as being as good as
"owning" - no-one else can do ANYTHING with that transponder without Skys
approval!

Out of interest what is Skys contract with SES? (very roughly only of course)

Given that it is such a critical part of their business I do find it
interesting that they don't have ownership of this aspect of it.

Not really. The business philosophy nowadays is to outsource everything that isn't core business.
Many companies don't actually manufacture themselves but contract out to whoever is the cheapest.
It's no different to BSkyB letting SES look after the satellites as that is their core business &
lets BSkyB carry on with what they are best at, programming & managing user subscriptions.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

In article ,
DM wrote:
Brian McIlwrath wrote:
In uk.tech.digital-tv Adrian A wrote:

: Sky don't _own_ any transponders, they rent them from SES.

And that's being pedantic to the point of stupidity!

I regard a many-year exclusive contract with SES as being as good as
"owning" - no-one else can do ANYTHING with that transponder without
Skys approval!

Out of interest what is Skys contract with SES? (very roughly only of
course)

Given that it is such a critical part of their business I do find it
interesting that they don't have ownership of this aspect of it.

to have "ownership", they'd have had to put up a lot of capital; much
better to have someone else carry the risk and simply pay a rental. They
way preferred by accountants.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 23:29:36 +0000 (UTC), Brian McIlwrath
wrote:

In uk.tech.tv.sky Mike wrote:

: Sky's EPG is IMHO just horrible. Badly designed, badly executed and
: with a mind blowingly hopeless user interface.

Well I (and almost everyone else who comments on it!) are going to totally
disagree!

Well I'm glad to not be 'everyone else' :)


--

BBC/ITV Freesat website launched
 

Nigel Barker wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:40:15 +0000, DM wrote:

Brian McIlwrath wrote:
In uk.tech.digital-tv Adrian A wrote:

: Sky don't _own_ any transponders, they rent them from SES.

And that's being pedantic to the point of stupidity!

I regard a many-year exclusive contract with SES as being as good as
"owning" - no-one else can do ANYTHING with that transponder without Skys
approval!
Out of interest what is Skys contract with SES? (very roughly only of course)

Given that it is such a critical part of their business I do find it
interesting that they don't have ownership of this aspect of it.

Not really. The business philosophy nowadays is to outsource everything that isn't core business.
Many companies don't actually manufacture themselves but contract out to whoever is the cheapest.
It's no different to BSkyB letting SES look after the satellites as that is their core business &
lets BSkyB carry on with what they are best at, programming & managing user subscriptions.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Yes that's all pretty straightforward in a standard manufacturing scenario,
where you have a choice of many suppliers.

My context of the post here relates to how long the sky contract is.. I
presumed the previous poster had some knowledge that sky had this wrapped up
for XX years, which then effectively gives them ownership of the facility.

Cheers

David