Sky speaks out about Prime on Freeview

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smbunn

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#122697 10-Apr-2008 21:58

Surely you are all aware that Sky hates Freeview because it is taking the many subscribers who only went to sky because they got poor reception. The last thing they want to do is encourage more to transfer since this limits their customer base. This point of view has been reported on numerous times.
Sky saying "we will join when it is economic to do so" is nonsense as this is an undefined statement. They could easily say "we will only join when we earn $5M profit per year for doing so, and with a station only doing a couple of million per year that is an unreacheable goal.
I suggest we should follow the US model, i,e set an end date for analog, all broadcasts must be digital by 2010 and be done with it. This frees up the massive bandwidth set aside for analog and we could fit 100 channels into the space currently used for 6.

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sbiddle

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#122707 10-Apr-2008 22:12

smbunn: Surely you are all aware that Sky hates Freeview because it is taking the many subscribers who only went to sky because they got poor reception. The last thing they want to do is encourage more to transfer since this limits their customer base. This point of view has been reported on numerous times.
Sky saying "we will join when it is economic to do so" is nonsense as this is an undefined statement. They could easily say "we will only join when we earn $5M profit per year for doing so, and with a station only doing a couple of million per year that is an unreacheable goal.
I suggest we should follow the US model, i,e set an end date for analog, all broadcasts must be digital by 2010 and be done with it. This frees up the massive bandwidth set aside for analog and we could fit 100 channels into the space currently used for 6.

New Zealand has no shortage of spectrum for digital broadcasts so there is no rush to shut down analogue transmissions.

As for Prime on Freeview Sky *have* to eventually put Prime on Freeview as it's part of their commitment for winning the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

richms

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#122835 11-Apr-2008 13:04

sbiddle:
smbunn: Surely you are all aware that Sky hates Freeview because it is taking the many subscribers who only went to sky because they got poor reception. The last thing they want to do is encourage more to transfer since this limits their customer base. This point of view has been reported on numerous times.
Sky saying "we will join when it is economic to do so" is nonsense as this is an undefined statement. They could easily say "we will only join when we earn $5M profit per year for doing so, and with a station only doing a couple of million per year that is an unreacheable goal.
I suggest we should follow the US model, i,e set an end date for analog, all broadcasts must be digital by 2010 and be done with it. This frees up the massive bandwidth set aside for analog and we could fit 100 channels into the space currently used for 6.

New Zealand has no shortage of spectrum for digital broadcasts so there is no rush to shut down analogue transmissions.

As for Prime on Freeview Sky *have* to eventually put Prime on Freeview as it's part of their commitment for winning the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

If they can free up the 700Mhz blocks as sold in the US in time for the gear being made available there would be huge benifits.

I am sure they can just pull primes 59 assignment and the asian stations 62 before they pull the rest of them.

If they start to lose analog then they will have to go onto freeview to be still called free to air. There might be some room on the old sky uhf channels, but that would mean that sky would have to upgrade both their UHF customers to digital.

Richard rich.ms

pjamieson

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#123047 12-Apr-2008 14:22

Also if Band 1 (VHF) Analog TV was switched off we could have Digital radio in NZ (DAB+ as Kordia doesn't want to do HD Radio in theFM Band). Currently it is looking like we won't get it til 2012 at the earliest, so I agree, a date needs to be firmly set, such as 01/01/2010 The country is being held back on many things until there is some certanty.

sbiddle

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#123049 12-Apr-2008 14:29

To be completely honest I don't think anybody really cares about a DAB+ rollout except Kordia and the Government who stand to make money out of it.. DAB is a failure in the UK (it's biggest market) and I can't see it ever gaining traction in NZ if it does ever appear.

pjamieson

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#123050 12-Apr-2008 14:43

It is a technical evolution that is a must. Better features, better audio and coverage, lower operating costs and mainly because it would open up our cluttered (actually full in most places) airwaves to allow other groups than the Duopoly that we currently have to enter, ie "competition". Alot of similariities to the Analog TV to Digital move.

I don't think comparing the UK to NZ for technological improvements is appropriate. They still like there cheques and standing in bank queues all day, does that mean our move to EFTPOS was incorrect!?

Unless you are suggesting HD Radio is the way to go, which would be better as a transition (can run both Analog + 3(?) digital channels on same freq), but I would still be worried about capacity because most frequencies are owned by the Duopoly. Also the unit cost and availability is an issue.

Anyway, I've gone a bit OTT now.

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richms

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#123058 12-Apr-2008 15:43

pjamieson: Also if Band 1 (VHF) Analog TV was switched off we could have Digital radio in NZ (DAB+ as Kordia doesn't want to do HD Radio in theFM Band). Currently it is looking like we won't get it til 2012 at the earliest, so I agree, a date needs to be firmly set, such as 01/01/2010 The country is being held back on many things until there is some certanty.

DAB is band 3, not 1 - band 1 is useless for almost anything with its loads of interference.

No reason that the DAB carriers cant operate alongside the analog tv ones as they are doing so with the lower powered test ones, if it messes up analog tv reception, who really cares now there are digital alternatives.

Richard rich.ms

pjamieson

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#123059 12-Apr-2008 15:46

Sorry I meant Band III.

I read an article that said they had to wait for Analog TV to finish before they could launch more than the few stations they can operate now so they were considering launching just above Band III, but that still wouldn't have huge capacity.

cyril7

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#123060 12-Apr-2008 15:52

The MED is currently concidering, or being asked to concider using the 230-240MHz band temporarly for DAB, currenlty this is a military band thats hardly used. Normal Broadcast BIII is 174-230MHz, however due to allocations in other parts of the world BIII DAB is specd to capable to operate 174-240MHz. Hence there is no issue in recievers using this band. I presume the proposal is that once BIII TV is cleared then the military will get there band back, I also presume they would retain use of some of it.

Cyril

richms

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#123115 12-Apr-2008 20:56

pjamieson: Sorry I meant Band III.

I read an article that said they had to wait for Analog TV to finish before they could launch more than the few stations they can operate now so they were considering launching just above Band III, but that still wouldn't have huge capacity.

MED can assign what they like where they like, they are just concerned about interference to analog tv. Since DAB allows for a SFN there can be transmitters anywhere, and bad quality masthead amps, front ends, etc will all get overloaded with nearby transmissions.

Really, thats not the MED's concern. If they were to use 230-240 I doubt there would be any less problems, and I dont know how that would fit in with the channel spacings since DAB is designed around 1/4 of a TV sized channel.

I say screw the analog tv and get dab up and running. ;)

Richard rich.ms

pjamieson

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#123117 12-Apr-2008 21:04

Amen! The late adopters need a bit of a push along.

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sbiddle

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#123120 12-Apr-2008 21:10

I know I started it but this DAB stuff is getting a bit off topic in this thread.. Feel free to start a new thread if you want to continute, I've already started a few on DAB this year.

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