Why Sky should put Prime on Freeview

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Why Sky should put Prime on Freeview

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#31753 29-Mar-2009 15:52

An associate of mine who is not short of $ had a gutsful of Sky when they were falsely advertising Mysky for $30 (add the rest the true price was much more expensive). All he really watched any case were TVNZ so he's dumped Sky and delighted with Freeview.

My argument for Prime on Freeview is that if Freeview took TVNZ off Sky, they would lose so many customers they would go bankrupt. So one must ask the question - why do we subsidise Sky with TVNZ service when they dont play ball with Prime. Without Prime TV Freeview only customers have no access to Rugby, our national sport. In most countries by regulation the national sports must be available on FTA stations.
Just my penny worth, for what its worth!
Al.

[Mod (N8): Made title alittle more descriptive]

Alistair Grant George

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#203994 29-Mar-2009 16:06

Your title is misleading. This is not about Sky speaking out, it's about you speaking your opinion. This has been well covered in other forums.

boby55

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#203997 29-Mar-2009 16:22

adamj: Your title is misleading. This is not about Sky speaking out, it's about you speaking your opinion. This has been well covered in other forums.

+1

You will find that Sky is making TVNZ alot of money, if as you say alot of sky users only watch TVNZ it means people are Watching the Ads and more People watching ads = more money.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#203998 29-Mar-2009 16:26

ageorge: Sky speaks out about Prime on Freeview

And what was it that Sky said about Prime on Freeview??

nate

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#204060 29-Mar-2009 21:05

ageorge: My argument for Prime on Freeview is that if Freeview took TVNZ off Sky, they would lose so many customers they would go bankrupt. So one must ask the question - why do we subsidise Sky with TVNZ service when they dont play ball with Prime. Without Prime TV Freeview only customers have no access to Rugby, our national sport. In most countries by regulation the national sports must be available on FTA stations.

I disagree.

If TVNZ left Sky, it would make no matter to me. I watch the odd program on 1,2 & 3, but the reason I have Sky is to watch rugby live, and for other interesting channels such as Discovery (MythBusters FTW), National Geographic, Juice, Documentary Channel etc. I also (as a couch potato) like having 50 odd channels to flick through, rather than just 4 (or whatever the standard set is).

I doubt Prime will ever move to Freeview. Sky has realised there is a group of subscribers who love Prime and would ditch their monthly subscription if Prime was available for free. By locking Prime into Sky only, they retain this customer base.

Regarding the FTA rugby rights, you can always listen to it on the radio and imagine it in your head

Fossie

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#204085 29-Mar-2009 22:59

TVNZ isn't Freeview. TVNZ is on Freeview. Just like MediaWorks is on Freeview.

TVNZ make more money being on more platforms. Why would they drop out?

FPR

176 posts

Master Geek

#204097 30-Mar-2009 01:17

From The NZ Herald

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10563749&pnum=0

He would be calling a meeting with Freeview, Sky and the State-owned communications company Kordia "in the next few weeks" looking at ways to hasten the move.

Signs are good that Sky will relent and put Prime on Freeview.

Signs might look good, but sky will wont move very quickly on it if they do agree to.

coffeebaron

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#204106 30-Mar-2009 08:46

Since switching to FreeView, I've long given up on watching Prime. No big loss to me

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ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#204113 30-Mar-2009 09:01

coffeebaron: Since switching to FreeView, I've long given up on watching Prime. No big loss to me

Unfortunately, we live in an area where Terrestrial is poorly serviced. Loss of Prime means loss of rugby unless one can create a mental picture and listen to the radio ;-)
Al.

Alistair Grant George

Jaxson

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#204123 30-Mar-2009 09:49

ageorge:
coffeebaron: Since switching to FreeView, I've long given up on watching Prime. No big loss to me

Unfortunately, we live in an area where Terrestrial is poorly serviced. Loss of Prime means loss of rugby unless one can create a mental picture and listen to the radio ;-)
Al.

This is where I'm coming from as well. This Prime/Sky thing falls into two camps, those who can afford SKY and those who can't/don't want to pay SKY.

I'm ok with SKY as it is, they get first rights to live sport etc, I just want to be able to see a delayed replay like they do with the league on Prime. That's the problem though, in that Prime is not available everywhere, and where it's not, SKY will put a satellite dish up and give you a locked SKY decoder to watch prime only, so another box etc.

I'd love to see two things change,
1 is put Prime on Freeview so everyone can receive it easily.
2 is show some delayed coverage of other sports, (Especially Formula One!!!!), on Prime.

This way Prime will get more viewers, and SKY can charge more for advertising.
People with SKY still get live and HD sport, but the rest of us get some access to it, and Prime still gets the viewers.

lchiu7

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#204138 30-Mar-2009 11:16

coffeebaron: Since switching to FreeView, I've long given up on watching Prime. No big loss to me

I also don't watch Prime and have Freeview(HD). But not because I can't (I have Prime on TCL cable) - just that there's nothing I want to watch on Prime. And with my PVR setup I can even record Prime but I can't remember the last time I actually did

Others will have different views

What is clear though is, the decision by the last Govt to allow Sky to buy Prime was perhaps not quite in line with their goals for Freeview acceptance but it's too late now

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

browned

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#204189 30-Mar-2009 14:32

I doubt Prime will ever move to Freeview. Sky has realised there is a group of subscribers who love Prime and would ditch their monthly subscription if Prime was available for free. By locking Prime into Sky only, they retain this customer base.

Regarding the FTA rugby rights, you can always listen to it on the radio and imagine it in your head

I don't follow you.

Prime is already free via UHF and any analogue TV right now, unless you happen to be in a UHF free zone and then you will have Sky anyway so no change there.

Maybe once the Government sets the analogue switch off in motion Prime might not be free but I can see the Government getting involved in that one as you would then require a sky sub to watch the rugby and most other sports and well all know what happens to monopolies don't we. As a news article recently stated, sky can do everything it can to win the war, but if it wins to convincingly it will be in trouble.

I expect we will have Prime of freeview before the Ana switch off.

cheers
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lchiu7

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#204195 30-Mar-2009 14:46

browned:

I don't follow you.

Prime is already free via UHF and any analogue TV right now, unless you happen to be in a UHF free zone and then you will have Sky anyway so no change there.

..

That's the point. One of the goals of Freeview was to give folks who had to subscribe to Sky to reasonable reception of OTA channels a free choice (since this is FTA after all). If Prime is not on the platform, then many subscribers can't make much use of Freeview (unless they are desparate for TVNZ6/7) if they are Prime viewers.

So it's the classic rock and the hard place scenario. The Govt and Freeview would love Prime to be on Freeview since many folks could ditch Sky if all they used for Sky was FTA reception and whatever comes free as part of the basic package. And of course Sky would much prefer they do not lose those customers

So it's a standoff. What isn't clear to me is TVNZ's motivation for allowing Sky to re-broadcast TV1/2 HD.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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#204197 30-Mar-2009 14:50

browned: Prime is already free via UHF and any analogue TV right now, unless you happen to be in a UHF free zone and then you will have Sky anyway so no change there.

That is the point right there, there is an option to change if you have no UHF coverage and Prime gets on freeview. Traditionally if you were in a UHF free zone then you had to get SKY, but only the base $50 per month package. This gave you access to TV1-3 etc and Prime.

Now with freeview you get these free via satellite, so you don't need SKY. However you don't get Prime as it's not on freeview. Hence people are staying on SKY in rural areas simply as they don't get Prime any other way. (Not strictly true as Sky will do the $145 locked Prime install, but this is another box and another TV input etc.)

Anyhow, these are the viewers SKY will lose if Prime is available truly free to air on the freeview platform.

Essentially Prime = Rugby to all people who can not afford SKY. Which is quite a few of us now that SKY no longer offers their UHF service. The $37 per month UHF Sky1 and Sport 1 package is now replaced by the $50 base + $16.50 or whatever Sport package on digital, = roughly double the cost of before.

Jaxson

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#204199 30-Mar-2009 14:52

lchiu7: What isn't clear to me is TVNZ's motivation for allowing Sky to re-broadcast TV1/2 HD.

Government recently demanded TVNZ pay it's dividend....

Ragnor

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#204202 30-Mar-2009 15:02

Prime has a lot of good stuff, all the people saying they don't watch Prime hence don't care about it.. what about Top Gear!!!

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