Dont bother with MYSKY or Sky anymore

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ockel

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#269893 4-Nov-2009 09:15

richardgnz: I feel very let down with the amount of HD content on Sky Sports 1 and 2. We are made to pay a premium for the HD ticket so all content if possible should be in HD. This does not happen.

Every week Sky show a lot of football games from the english premiership. This is fantastic, but - only about 50% are in HD. Every game is filmed in HD so it is just Sky being tight and not wanting to pay for it. Should they be allowed to do this?

Secondly ESPN - What a joke. The EUFA Champions League is only shown on this channel. This in my opinion is the greatest competion in the world - it beats any world cup and I have to watch it on ESPN. I might as well stream it of a dodgy site on the internet. The clarity is horrible. Its not even SD??? ESPN do offer an HD channel! Why are we made to put up what looks like a low bandwidth internet feed.

I seem to recall that ESPN International owns the rights to Champions League and Europa league for this part of the world. Unless Sky adds ESPNHD to its lineup then there is little chance of a change - and even then you should check Foxtel's ESPNHD programming guide to see if they choose to play those games on that channel. Recall that pre-HD Champions League still only appeared on ESPN - it goes back to the rights ownership rather than Sky. But it is encumbent on them to decide on ESPN vs ESPNHD. I imagine its a matter of time (and linking to the US). Foxtel had to quadruple capacity on its US-AUS feed and ESPNHD was a big driver of this.

Re: English premiership. I suggest that the quality of the live broadcast will come down to capacity and viewership. If Golf in HD is on at the same time as two EPL games then you'll see golf, 1 EPL in HD and 1 EPL in SD. Beyond that it would likely be a programmers call as to where the replays appear SS1/SS2/SS3. If a replay appears on SS1 or SS2 it will be in HD. Case in point at the weekend with the rugby league - both games live on SS3 in SD but replays on SS2 (Sun afternoon and Mon afternoon).

At the end of the day its about viewership. Any content that Sky has the HD rights for and the scheduling works for will be played in HD.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

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allstarnz

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#269923 4-Nov-2009 10:22

FYI SBS have rights to additional Champions League and Europa League games. The games on SBS HD seem to be in HD, or HQ SD.

krysiszone

14 posts

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#270547 6-Nov-2009 08:23

I agree with all the comments about charging us extra for HD content.

What annoys me the most is that they are pushing the mysky HDi decoder and then have the cheek to charge you for the HD content.

What makes it even more a joke if you cancel the HD ticket you will still get your TV1,TV2 and TV3 content in HD. (I was quoted this from a sky customer services rep)

Having recently come back from Australia on holiday I was really impressed with the HD content available in Australia.

ockel

1949 posts

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#270558 6-Nov-2009 09:01

krysiszone: I agree with all the comments about charging us extra for HD content.

What annoys me the most is that they are pushing the mysky HDi decoder and then have the cheek to charge you for the HD content.

What makes it even more a joke if you cancel the HD ticket you will still get your TV1,TV2 and TV3 content in HD. (I was quoted this from a sky customer services rep)

Having recently come back from Australia on holiday I was really impressed with the HD content available in Australia.

Can you let us know what impressed you with Australia? Apart from the recently announced extra channels of HD on Foxtel, was it the FTA HD offering (which has been mandatory for a number of years as part of licensing agreements) or the pricing that Foxtel was charging relative to Sky?

If it was the latter how does it compare to the annoyance of Sky pushing the HDi decoder and charging for the HD content?

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

krysiszone

14 posts

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#270592 6-Nov-2009 10:24

I was staying in Brisbane and my mate has Foxtel on his main TV and the built in Freeview on his other tv. The amount of the HD content overall on all channels was pretty impressive. I don't think we broadcast that many HD shows on our Freeview.
As far as his Foxtel goes I believe he pays $16 per month for the HD content (on top of his package)but it is far more HD channels, Discovery, History ,Movies UK TV. Sports etc. I pay $10 per month and as I only have the sports channel options then I only get a few games in HD) I suppose my main gripe is that there should be far more channels available as HD. I was told there was more coming soon when I got Mysky HD a year ago.I rang them last week to get an update and was still told they don't know when more HD channels are going to be available.

ockel

1949 posts

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#270595 6-Nov-2009 10:44

krysiszone: I was staying in Brisbane and my mate has Foxtel on his main TV and the built in Freeview on his other tv. The amount of the HD content overall on all channels was pretty impressive. I don't think we broadcast that many HD shows on our Freeview.
As far as his Foxtel goes I believe he pays $16 per month for the HD content (on top of his package)but it is far more HD channels, Discovery, History ,Movies UK TV. Sports etc. I pay $10 per month and as I only have the sports channel options then I only get a few games in HD) I suppose my main gripe is that there should be far more channels available as HD. I was told there was more coming soon when I got Mysky HD a year ago.I rang them last week to get an update and was still told they don't know when more HD channels are going to be available.

So he pays $10/mth for his IQ2 (you'd pay $15/mth for your MySky or $600 one off) and then he pays $16/mth for his HD content (vs your $10/mth).
Until the 15th of this month he has Sport, ESPN, Discovery and BBC in HD. He does have to pay for any HD movies at $6/movie.
Since the launch of D3 Foxtel have added 15 additional channels so will add additional sport, lifestyle and now movie channels for no additional cost per month from Nov 15. This is consistent with paytv providers around the world - over time growing the HD offering for no additional HD charge.

As for the quantum of sport in HD that has been discussed ad nausem in these forums - I think Sky has boasted about the amount of hours played in HD but opinions amongst consumers vary. Approx 90% of movies are in HD.

As for the FTA HD content as mentioned previously all channels were required to simulcast a high proportion of content in HD from early in the decade. This was an agreement made between the broadcasters and the Govt in return for the Govt agreeing not to issue another licence for the 4th FTA channel.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

RustyGonad

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#270599 6-Nov-2009 10:58

Interesting comparison between Foxtel and Sky (which share a common owner) - you should have presented the base fees for a real comparison. Base fees (before exchange rate) appear to be somewhat higher in Aussie. Plenty of aussies on other forums complain about the pricing as well...

Their 15 new channels aren't exactly brimming with fantastic content... Personally I'd take quality over quantity every time (not saying Sky have it perfect), but having another 5 movies channels for example is of no use to me... Personally I'd just like ESPN and Discovery in HD - the rest of the 15 new Foxtel channels are full of fluff...

Aussie also have their own set of issues (often arising out of the protected sports arrangement), which often sees for example V8 fans coming to grief at the expense of AFL on 7.

ZollyMonsta

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#270602 6-Nov-2009 11:13

For arguments sake, Foxtel can afford to offer such things as this.... If you consider the number of the entire population of NZ currently lives in just one city in OZ for example, Sydney I believe has the same amount of residents as the entire population of NZ. So hardly a good comparison between Foxtel's HD offering and costs, compared to Sky's.

Just my 2cents... you should take this into account.

tdgeek

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#270734 6-Nov-2009 20:53

Well,
The first priority with MySky HDi is the TIVO aspect of it
Next, the quality is good across the board, so the threads say compared to Sky Digital
Yes, more HD will be good, but that will come.

If you paid $20 for Sky and $60 for HD, then you would have a point

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