Free itv chan 4/5 to end

In article ,
says...
Tens of thousands of people in the U.K. need the sky platform to get good
pictures and service, its a disgrace that because the BBC have gone free to
air, no one will pick up the cost of viewing cards for the free channels, so
sky use it as a stick to make you subscribe to get the free channels you are
due to by right.

If you feel like I do please contact your local ITV company at
http://www.itv.com/ to complain.

What are ITV going to do about it? They weren't paying anything towards the
cards, and you could've saved yourself some keystrokes by simply typing
itv.com

If you were the BBC wouldn't you want to save £88m over five years? Anyway,
the government have got to step in to this mess if they want to switch off
analogue and allow the required %age to view digital (I don't know the figure
but it's a high one, AFAIK)
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 937 DVDs, 259 games, 33 videos, 67 cinema films, 69 CDs, laserdiscs & news
/* catch me if you can, terminator 3, brute force, punch drunk love, shield s1
"Organiser Eric Amy hit out today after just four people showed up for
a public meeting to fight apathy in Dorchester" - Dorset Evening Echo

If you were the BBC wouldn't you want to save =A388m over five years? =
Anyway,=20
the government have got to step in to this mess if they want to switch =
off=20
analogue and allow the required %age to view digital (I don't know the =
figure=20
but it's a high one, AFAIK)
--=20
=20

Why? They've just wasted =A3105 million over 3 years on football rights!


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I have recieved this email from:
so it may be worth taking it up, but it looks like everyone will pass the
book and sky will pick up the money.
Im in a position that I can only just pick up a TV signal, but ITV/Channel 4
is not watchable, so I have to use satellite.
To have the recieving equipment in the house ie: TV/Video I have to pay a TV
licence fee, no choice, why do I have to pay sky also, as am not interested
in the other channels, and cant get freeview either.
Sorry for the long email below but it may interest some people.

------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr Norton,

Thank you for your e-mail of 03 August regarding free to view channels on
satellite.

Firstly, as you may know, most of the digital satellite programmes intended
for reception in the UK are transmitted from the Astra 2A, 2B and 2D
satellites, although a few services make use of the Eurobird 1 satellite. In
May, the BBC services moved over from using Astra 2A to 2D. Astra 2A covers
the UK together with a large part of continental Europe. Whereas Astra 2D
has a tighter footprint covering, primarily the UK and Republic of Ireland,
with some spillover into France and Benelux. As a result of these changes,
it is now possible to view BBC services on digital satellite free-to-air
without the need for a viewing card.

BSkyB and the BBC announced on 13 June a five year agreement which includes
the continued allocation to BBC1 and to BBC2 channel numbers 101 and 102
respectively on BSkyB's Electronic Programme Guide (EPG). As part of that
agreement, the BBC is buying a regionalisation service from Sky to ensure
that viewers with a Sky viewing card within the UK will continue to
automatically receive the right national and regional versions of BBC1 and
BBC2. But this will also enable digital satellite viewers to receive any of
the BBC's national and regional services anywhere in the UK.

The BBC agreement will end payment by the BBC to BSkyB for the provision of
"Solus" viewing cards to digital satellite viewers who do not have a
subscription to a pay-TV service.

I appreciate your concerns as to whether this means consumers will have to
subscribe to receive ITV, Channel 4 and Five in the future. As yet, no
changes have been made to ITV, Channel 4 or Five. ITV continues to be
transmitted form Astra 2D and Channel 4 and Five are on Astra 2A. These
channels use the Sky conditional access system, so a viewing card is
required. We are advised by the Independent Television Commission that their
present conditional access agreements with Sky has some time to run.
However, as things stand, BSkyB will not be sending new viewing cards to
"Solus" card viewers as part of the card swap-out programme - unless a
free-to-view broadcaster, other than the BBC, wishes to pay to provide
replacement cards. Once the existing cards are disabled, access to these
services will cease and in the longer term it could be that the commercial
public service channels may consider alternative arrangements if they wish
to continue to provide free-to view access to their services by satellite.

I should clarify that there are provisions in the Communications Act 2003 to
empower OfCom to require/approve the provision of arrangements to ensure
reception of a 'must provide' satellite service (as defined in the Act and
subject to modification by the Secretary of State) in those areas where it
is not possible to receive digital public service channels by other means.
However, we hope that this current situation can be satisfactorily resolved
without the need to use legislation.

Finally, you will wish to know that Tessa Jowell has written to the
respective Chief Executives of ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB seeking
clarification regarding their position over current and future free-to-view
access to their services on digital satellite. We will publish the results
of those enquiries on the digital television website
www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk as soon as it is possible to do so.

I hope this has been of help to you.
Rachel Hitchman

Digital and Commercial Television Policy Advisor
Department for Culture Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH


"Andy" wrote in message
...
If you were the BBC wouldn't you want to save £88m over five years?
Anyway,
the government have got to step in to this mess if they want to switch off
analogue and allow the required %age to view digital (I don't know the
figure
but it's a high one, AFAIK)
--


Why? They've just wasted £105 million over 3 years on football rights!


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Dom Robinson wrote:

What are ITV going to do about it?

They alone of the FTV channels have specifically stated that they will
do their utmost to remain available to all.
C4 have said nothing.
C5 have simply said that they now consider themselves to be a free
part of Sky and have just signed a 5 year service contract with Sky,
presumably whilst waiting to actually be bought by Sky in the near
future.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/guiv
How to get UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
Fed up with logos / red buttons? : http://logofreetv.org/
BBC gone? : http://www.astra2d.co.uk/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)

In article , REMOVETHISBIT-
says...
If you were the BBC wouldn't you want to save =A388m over five years? =
Anyway,=20
the government have got to step in to this mess if they want to switch =
off=20
analogue and allow the required %age to view digital (I don't know the =
figure=20
but it's a high one, AFAIK)
--=20
=20

Why? They've just wasted =A3105 million over 3 years on football rights!

To me, if a TV station spends any money at all on football rights, it's wasted
money. Could be worse, there's always rugby - a game played by men with big,
odd-shaped balls because they've got none of their own.
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 937 DVDs, 259 games, 33 videos, 67 cinema films, 69 CDs, laserdiscs & news
/* catch me if you can, terminator 3, brute force, punch drunk love, shield s1
"Organiser Eric Amy hit out today after just four people showed up for
a public meeting to fight apathy in Dorchester" - Dorset Evening Echo

Dom Robinson wrote:

In article ,
says...
Tens of thousands of people in the U.K. need the sky platform to get good
pictures and service, its a disgrace that because the BBC have gone free to
air, no one will pick up the cost of viewing cards for the free channels, so
sky use it as a stick to make you subscribe to get the free channels you are
due to by right.

If you feel like I do please contact your local ITV company at
http://www.itv.com/ to complain.

What are ITV going to do about it? They weren't paying anything towards the
cards, and you could've saved yourself some keystrokes by simply typing
itv.com

itv.com is not recognised by my newsreader as a clickable link.
http://www.itv.com is.


--
Spammers! It is in your interest to read http://w3.shrimper.org.uk/
before posting to this address.

In article k, {2003.07.03}
@shrimper.org.uk says...
Dom Robinson wrote:

In article ,
says...
Tens of thousands of people in the U.K. need the sky platform to get good
pictures and service, its a disgrace that because the BBC have gone free to
air, no one will pick up the cost of viewing cards for the free channels, so
sky use it as a stick to make you subscribe to get the free channels you are
due to by right.

If you feel like I do please contact your local ITV company at
http://www.itv.com/ to complain.

What are ITV going to do about it? They weren't paying anything towards the
cards, and you could've saved yourself some keystrokes by simply typing
itv.com

itv.com is not recognised by my newsreader as a clickable link.
http://www.itv.com is.

So simply type itv.com. Placing links in a newsreader may be a necessity of
it's a long link, but if it's difficult for you to simply type itv.com into a
browser...
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 940 DVDs, 259 games, 33 videos, 67 cinema films, 69 CDs, laserdiscs & news
/* star trek nemesis, bringing down the house, phone booth, human nature
"Organiser Eric Amy hit out today after just four people showed up for
a public meeting to fight apathy in Dorchester" - Dorset Evening Echo

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 13:04:57 +0100, (Luke
Bosman) wrote:

itv.com is not recognised by my newsreader as a clickable link.
http://www.itv.com is.

In the olden days we used to have to open Mozilla and TYPE in the URL
with our own little fingers.

--Nick.
--
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/scp/id/what - Want videos?
Fax: +44 (0) 7974 984182 - icq: 9235201 - Hayn on dal

I totally agree, but suspect that the government and Sky are co-operating to
hasten digital changeover by making analogue inaccessible.

However, if you look at the Sky Digibox Terms and Conditions Section 3(a) it
clearly states that if Sky - for security reasons - changes the card, they
will send a new one before the old one becomes invalid.

Would any lawyer estimate the chance of a successful breach of contract
claim if Sky failed to meet this condition. Would the chances improve if
500,000 people got together to make the case?

John Newell

"James Brown" wrote in message
...
Tens of thousands of people in the U.K. need the sky platform to get good
pictures and service, its a disgrace that because the BBC have gone free
to
air, no one will pick up the cost of viewing cards for the free channels,
so
sky use it as a stick to make you subscribe to get the free channels you
are
due to by right.

If you feel like I do please contact your local ITV company at
http://www.itv.com/ to complain.

Mike_C wrote:

SKY never issued any FTV cards to the public.

They produced card in use today, bar none.


They supplied the cards at the request and payment from the FTV organises
(BBC, Ch4 and Five) and there was no contract between an individual and SKY.

All my FTV cards came on a Sky backing paper that was covered with Sky
legalese. This includes rules about where and how to use it, who it
belongs to (Sky), what to do with it when it expires and how Sky would
make every effort to supply me with a new one before the old one stops
working. I'm still waiting for this. Ho-hum.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/guiv
How to get UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
Fed up with logos / red buttons? : http://logofreetv.org/
BBC gone? : http://www.astra2d.co.uk/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)