FilmFour free on Sky?

On 26 May 2006 09:15:28 GMT, MJ Ray wrote:


With that one piece of handwaving, Ofcom erased the million homes with
non-Sky satellite systems from the statistics at the end of 2003.

Any evidence for that figure of 1,000,000? It seems an improbably large number
for the UK considering how difficult it is to buy a non-Sky satellite receiver.
It was pretty easy in analogue days but now you would have to find a specialist
satellite shop. Here in Europe FTA satellite receivers are available in every
large supermarket & DIY store. The cheapest that I have found is 37 Euros. Good
value just to use for the radio channels. BBC7 in far better quality than DAB.

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

On Fri, 26 May 2006 08:11:54 +0200, Jomtien wrote:

Clearly many FTV viewers will in fact be using ex-subscription cards.
This makes them just as hard to count as the FTA viewers.

Not at all. It would be very easy to count how many cards have been
issued and subsequently deactivated to just the free-to-view channels.

--

On 26 May 2006 09:15:28 GMT, MJ Ray wrote:

"homes with a digital satellite set-top box but without a current
Sky subscription can receive BBC channels but not ITV1, Channel 4 and
Five. Ofcom no longer considers such homes to be digital households."
- from Driving Digital Switchover, Ofcom

With that one piece of handwaving, Ofcom erased the million homes with
non-Sky satellite systems from the statistics at the end of 2003.

A million homes? Where does that figure come from?

For the purposes that Ofcom require the figures for, homes to be
counted as having properly "gone digital" must be able to receive the
public service broadcasters. Anything else is interesting but not
especially relevant.

--

Zero Tolerance wrote:

Clearly many FTV viewers will in fact be using ex-subscription cards.
This makes them just as hard to count as the FTA viewers.

Not at all. It would be very easy to count how many cards have been
issued and subsequently deactivated to just the free-to-view channels.

But it is still impossible to tell whether they are being used or not.
Many could be in the bin.

It is reasonable to suppose that cards that have been bought will be
in use. Cards that have cost nothing could be anywhere.

--
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. ;-)

MJ Ray wrote:

"homes with a digital satellite set-top box but without a current
Sky subscription can receive BBC channels but not ITV1, Channel 4 and
Five. Ofcom no longer considers such homes to be digital households."
- from Driving Digital Switchover, Ofcom

That's not only a damn stupid idea but completely wrong to boot, as
the only thing needed then or now was a valid card: not a valid sub.

Mind you, what can one expect from Ofcom?

--
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. ;-)

Nigel Barker wrote:

With that one piece of handwaving, Ofcom erased the million homes with
non-Sky satellite systems from the statistics at the end of 2003.

Any evidence for that figure of 1,000,000? It seems an improbably large number
for the UK considering how difficult it is to buy a non-Sky satellite receiver.

He is presumably including all those with Sky boxes but no valid Sky
sub, just as Ofcom did.

--
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. ;-)

Nigel Barker
On 26 May 2006 09:15:28 GMT, MJ Ray wrote:
With that one piece of handwaving, Ofcom erased the million homes with
non-Sky satellite systems from the statistics at the end of 2003.

Any evidence for that figure of 1,000,000?

It's where the trend from the Ofcom DTV Update figures up to Q3 2003
would probably have reached had they not changed the method of counting
in Q4 2003.

It seems an improbably large number
for the UK considering how difficult it is to buy a non-Sky satellite receiver.

Yes, I think the Ofcom figures are crap, but they're all we have,
as far as I know. Does anyone have other official figures?

It's fairly easy to buy them, available from online shops, a few
supermarkets and specialist installers, but not as easy *or* *as* *cheap*
as it would be in a free and fair market. They're not as easy to
use as other European systems because of Sky's involvement in
EPG production and discouragement of Ceefax.

How do we get the competition commission to stop Sky's scandals?

--
MJR/slef
Sat FAQ: http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2006/astefaq

(Zero Tolerance)
For the purposes that Ofcom require the figures for, homes to be
counted as having properly "gone digital" must be able to receive the
public service broadcasters. Anything else is interesting but not
especially relevant.

On satellite, Channel 4 is a pay-TV channel, not a public service
broadcaster.

MJ Ray wrote:
(Zero Tolerance)

For the purposes that Ofcom require the figures for, homes to be
counted as having properly "gone digital" must be able to receive the
public service broadcasters. Anything else is interesting but not
especially relevant.


On satellite, Channel 4 is a pay-TV channel, not a public service
broadcaster.

D-Sat is not considered (by Ofcom) to be a 'public service'
transmission platform, hence Ofcom's continuing reluctance to sort out
the Sky FTV issue, or for that matter force C4 to use a horizontal
resolution of 704 or 720 on D-Sat.


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

On Sat, 27 May 2006 09:35:05 +0200, Jomtien wrote:

Nigel Barker wrote:
Any evidence for that figure of 1,000,000? It seems an improbably large number
for the UK considering how difficult it is to buy a non-Sky satellite receiver.

He is presumably including all those with Sky boxes but no valid Sky
sub, just as Ofcom did.

If he is, then describing that figure as "homes with non-Sky satellite
systems" is a bit rich.

--