BBC/ITV FreeSat - will this be any different from FreeSatFromSky?

I notice BBC are effectively advertising FreeSatFromSky now as in their
digial TV adverts they say "you can get digital satellite for a one
off payment of £150. Ask your retailer for details" on their recent
TV ads.

The one-off payment will provide you with a box, dish, installation and a
viewing card to pick up C4 & C5. What might be an alternative for you, as
has been suggested in here before is to have Sky on a subscription basis for
one year, which on a minimum package will cost you £157.50 over 12 months.
You will get all the equipment installed for free and when the year is up
you can cancel and you are still able to receive all the freesat channels.
The advantage is you get some paid channels for a year.

HTH

Nathan



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Thus spaketh Zero Tolerance:
On 18 Feb 2006 09:28:37 -0800, "Dave"
wrote:

Does anyone know when this service will launch Will this service be
any different from http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/ ?

It will have fewer channels, a less comprehensive EPG, and the
equipment will probably cost more.


Three less channels - big deal!

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 21:51:03 -0000, "Nathan" nospam.thankyou wrote:

|
|I notice BBC are effectively advertising FreeSatFromSky now as in their
|digial TV adverts they say "you can get digital satellite for a one
|off payment of ?150. Ask your retailer for details" on their recent
|TV ads.
|
|The one-off payment will provide you with a box, dish, installation and a
|viewing card to pick up C4 & C5. What might be an alternative for you, as
|has been suggested in here before is to have Sky on a subscription basis for
|one year, which on a minimum package will cost you ?157.50 over 12 months.
|You will get all the equipment installed for free and when the year is up
|you can cancel and you are still able to receive all the freesat channels.
|The advantage is you get some paid channels for a year.

You have just shown that freesatfromsky is a $ky advertising exercise.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
"Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*.
"Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*.
More like "Incompetent design". Sig (C) Copyright Public Domain

Dave wrote:

I'm not a big fan of Sky, hence was going to wait to buy the non-Sky
offering, but if this new service is not going to be any different I
guess I may as well get FreeSatFromSky now?

As has been mentioned this will not be significantly different from
what is available now though it will allow for non-Sky receivers to be
used.

In your position I would buy the FreeSatFromSky package today for £150
(or indeed take the 12 month minimum Sky package which, with all the
reductions, will only cost a few pounds more - but don't forget to
cancel after 12 months) as you will probably never find anyone to
provide a dish, box, cable, mount etc. and to install it all for £150.
Then, later, you can just buy a new non-Sky receiver if an interesting
one becomes available (you can just plug it in to the dish lead and TV
yourself) or indeed just keep using the Sky box without a sub or any
monthly payment.

You win both ways. There is no point waiting.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/8vef5
UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
BBC reception questions? ; http://www.astra2d.com/
Fed up with on-screen logos? : http://logofreetv.org/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)

Zero Tolerance wrote:

Does anyone know when this service will launch Will this service be any
different from http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/ ?

It will have fewer channels,

By definition it will have exactly the same number of FTA channels as
the current Sky offering. Currently the only ones that it won't have
will be the 3 FTV channels.


a less comprehensive EPG,

This remains to be seen. It may well be more flexible than the Sky
EPG.


and the
equipment will probably cost more.

Only if you compare it with the heavily discounted £150 FreeSatFromSky
offer.

And of course you fail to mention that the BBC/ITV Freesat proposition
will allow for anyone to make, sell, buy, install and use a twin-tuner
SAT PVR of the Sky+ type without having to ask Sky's permission or
indeed to pay Sky anything at all for so doing. This in itself is
quite splendid and a Good Thing.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/8vef5
UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
BBC reception questions? ; http://www.astra2d.com/
Fed up with on-screen logos? : http://logofreetv.org/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)

Jomtien wrote:

And of course you fail to mention that the BBC/ITV Freesat proposition
will allow for anyone to make, sell, buy, install and use a twin-tuner
SAT PVR of the Sky+ type without having to ask Sky's permission or
indeed to pay Sky anything at all for so doing. This in itself is
quite splendid and a Good Thing.

Yes, it will be A Good Thing.

However, as readers of uk.tech.digital-tv are only too aware, an open
source DVB platform can be a mixed blessing. BBC/ITV might like to
carefully consider the implications of throwing open the doors to any
manufacturer to produce receivers, and particularly PVRs to work
with their new (proprietary ?) Freesat EPG and platform.

The Beeb and co adopted that policy with Freeview DTT, and there
seems to be trouble brewing. Some boxes have not implemented the specs
properly or fully and the results can be chaotic, with viewers uncertain
whether to blame the broadcasters or manufacturers for operational failures.

Sky have enough trouble with their 'closed' platform, never mind the
'free for all' design attitude adopted by the Freeview consortium.

I suspect (and hope) the delay of BBC/ITV Freesat is because the
above problems and challenges are being considered very carefully ?

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 08:59:11 +0100, Jomtien wrote:

Zero Tolerance wrote:
It will have fewer channels,

By definition it will have exactly the same number of FTA channels as
the current Sky offering. Currently the only ones that it won't have
will be the 3 FTV channels.

So like I said, fewer channels.

a less comprehensive EPG,

This remains to be seen. It may well be more flexible than the Sky
EPG.

Maybe - but what are the chances of that? Why would the BBC and ITV
invest large sums of money in developing a Sky-beater EPG which could
only make it easier for people to watch other people's channels?
Unlike Sky they'd have no financial incentive to do so. My bet is that
they'll be happy with anything that bungs all their channels on the
front page, and sod the rest.

and the
equipment will probably cost more.

Only if you compare it with the heavily discounted £150 FreeSatFromSky
offer.

So, like I said, the equipment will probably cost more.

And of course you fail to mention that the BBC/ITV Freesat proposition
will allow for anyone to make, sell, buy, install and use a twin-tuner
SAT PVR of the Sky+ type without having to ask Sky's permission or
indeed to pay Sky anything at all for so doing. This in itself is
quite splendid and a Good Thing.

For those people who worry about such things, of course. But non-Sky
twin-tuner sat PVRs compatible with the BBC and ITV have been commonly
available for quite some time now, and they don't appear to have sold
in any significant numbers.

Of course perhaps if the BBC and ITV could even be bothered to
transmit proper advance EPG data which these boxes would work with,
that would change things. But they haven't done, so far. The BBC have
been FTA for years, why have they done nothing?

Trying to run a twin-tuner PVR off some half-assed 'now and next'
information is ridiculous. No wonder Sky+ is popular.

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 07:43:11 +0000, Dave Fawthrop
wrote:

You have just shown that freesatfromsky is a $ky advertising exercise.

Why? The free option has always been that kind of price.

And it's spelt "Sky", with an S.

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 14:39:21 GMT, (Zero
Tolerance) wrote:

|On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 07:43:11 +0000, Dave Fawthrop
wrote:
|
|You have just shown that freesatfromsky is a $ky advertising exercise.
|
|Why? The free option has always been that kind of price.

Price is always part of the advertising mix.

|And it's spelt "Sky", with an S.

Tell Murdock to change the moneygrubbing policies.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religion, and Democracy are
the keys to Civilization, together with legal acceptance of
Fundamental Human rights.

Zero Tolerance wrote:

And of course you fail to mention that the BBC/ITV Freesat proposition
will allow for anyone to make, sell, buy, install and use a twin-tuner
SAT PVR of the Sky+ type without having to ask Sky's permission or
indeed to pay Sky anything at all for so doing. This in itself is
quite splendid and a Good Thing.

For those people who worry about such things, of course. But non-Sky
twin-tuner sat PVRs compatible with the BBC and ITV have been commonly
available for quite some time now, and they don't appear to have sold
in any significant numbers.

Given that ITV has only been FTA for a few months this is hardly
surprising. Given that these non-Sky boxes are never publicised by
anyone it is even less surprising. Given that the Sky EPG data is
non-standard and, as such, won't work with most non-Sky boxes it is
less surprising still.
Once vendors, manufacturers and users actually realise that a non-Sky
box can do the job I suspect that they will become much more
available. If the remaining 2 major FTV channels became FTA as they
should this would happen even more quickly.


Of course perhaps if the BBC and ITV could even be bothered to
transmit proper advance EPG data which these boxes would work with,
that would change things. But they haven't done, so far. The BBC have
been FTA for years, why have they done nothing?

See above. It is the Sky EPG data that is non-standard and it is made
so by Sky quite deliberately in order to prevent competition.


Trying to run a twin-tuner PVR off some half-assed 'now and next'
information is ridiculous. No wonder Sky+ is popular.

Hmm. Shame it's so unreliable, even though you have to pay a monthly
fee for it.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/8vef5
UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
BBC reception questions? ; http://www.astra2d.com/
Fed up with on-screen logos? : http://logofreetv.org/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)