Fantasy Future - Satellite TV

What TV package would you choose?

  • I'd only go for the freely available Stuff- no to PayTV

    Votes: 13 54.2%
  • Free + VIBE pack ~budget solution, decent range choice

    Votes: 9 37.5%
  • Free + Sky pack ~more expensive, that equals more great TV

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • FantasyFuture is naff /I'd never choose sat TV anyway

    Votes: 1 4.2%

  • Total voters
    24

pinkhelmets

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Wouldnt it be great if we had choice?
Satellite TV in the UK has always been regarded as 'Getting Sky'. This weeks events surrounding Virgin, plus the ongoing rivalry of BBC & Sky, and views of MP's, all means that a different future could lay ahead. 'Monopoly' could soon be a forgotten word......

This is my fantasy view, but it would be good to know which satellite systems would get percentages of public demand? This is about choosing Digital Satellite- the real future of television, so I have grouped the rest together (cable/Top-up/freeview) as an option for those who will never choose SatTV.

Lets explain...........


Option 1 = freesat, zero subscription per month = The new trend thats already booming.
bbc1,2,3,4, BBC News24, Cbbc, Cbeebies
ITV1,2,3,4, CITV, Men & Motors
Ch4, E4, More4, Film4
Ch5, FiveUS, Five Life
True Movies, Horror, Thriller, Movies4men, Reality, Travel Chan, CNN
Chart Show, Vault, B4 & other music chans, plus much more.
>>>> (Freesat only would also be the suitable option for those that have Euro-systems or pirate options ;) )


NEW!! +++++++++++++++ VIBE = Virgin ITV BBC Entertainment ++++++++++++++++++

Option 2 = Freesat + VIBE package. Costs = ~12/m or 24/m-full pack with movies/sports access.
Living TV, Living TV2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge, Trouble, FTN
UKTV Gold, UKTV G2, UKTV Bright Ideas, UKTV Documentary, UKTV Drama,
UKTV Food, UKTV Gardens, UKTV History, UKTV People, UKTV Style
Bid-Tv, Price-drop TV, Speed Auction TV
*new VIBE Sports (maybe setanta mixed in)
*new Virgin VIBE Movies
*new BBC VIBE Movies
*new ITV VIBE Movies
##TCM, Boomerang, Toonami, Eurosport, Discovery, National Geographic


++++++++++++ Sky +++++++++++++
Option3 = Freesat + Sky package. Costs ~18/m 40/m-full package
Sky1,2,3, Sky News, Sky Travel, MTV, VH1 & music chans
Sky Movies1~10, Sky Cinema1,2, Sky Sports1,2,3
##Discovery Science, Discovery Wings, Discovery H&H, Discovery Civilisations, Disney, abc1
##History, Paramount, Sci-Fi, Hallmark, Artsworld, Jetix, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon


Before voting, remember that Sky as we know it would become a much reduced offering, most likely without reduction of costs. Setanta have already taken some football from Sky, but that trend to also happen with all other sports as VIBE begin to bid.
Movies rights will just get a general mix. Sky will still offer more channels but Vibe will have many of the newly released films too.
Shows like Lost, Simpsons, 24 and many other american offerings will be mixed too. Ie, Channel4 had the first 2 series of Lost, Sky get the next 2, but VIBE will be a powerful force when bidding for new rights.

Although Channel4 are not part of VIBE they stand by the side of Virgin. They jointly lodged the complaint protesting over the underhand dealing of Sky buying into ITV, they already signed content deals with virgin too, and did not like Sky stealing LOST from them!
Ch4 show intent on becoming free-to-air, already making Film4 free, already falling out with sky over the 'more4 scam' so they may become part of VIBE and we'd have to think of a new name lol.

Ch5 follow trends and just sit on the fence. They have invested heavily and want their channels to be Pay-tv, but at the same time they are forced to join Freesat to keep audiences, so they go into freesat.

##These marked channels could be on both packs, so I have given most to the Sky-pack in the example as Sky would have more money to bribe (obviously charge customers more). The channels have very little of the actual percentage of viewer ratings, but maybe available on both packages or a mix of some on each. If these smaller channels really will affect your choice then you should choose the Sky-pack option.

:) Well thats it. The future is not mapped out but public opinion does have influence, so it would be great to see the percentages here at Digitalworldz- the very first forum to have this poll.
 
I like the name VIBE - very good.

The only thing about VIBE is would ITV be part of it with Sky owning 17.9%? Or yet again would that be Sky keeping their mucky fingers in all pies?

I agree that it is about time someone rivaled Sky on 'Satellite TV' as we both know there is a lot more to satellite tv than just Sky ;) but it is a very much a limited method of delivering television when compared to cable.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out but as I learnt in Economics A levels (sometime ago) a price war is only good for consumers short term not long term.

Any thoughts?

Crazy
 
....but it is a very much a limited method of delivering television when compared to cable....
Not sure I understand your view m8? Cable is VERY limited to areas, satellite covers everywhere. Satellites can keep growing in size, channels, bandwidth etc, cable will also have limit in that aspect too. Not picking a fight, I just wondered how you reached your conclusion? :)
 
Not sure I understand your view m8? Cable is VERY limited to areas, satellite covers everywhere. Satellites can keep growing in size, channels, bandwidth etc, cable will also have limit in that aspect too. Not picking a fight, I just wondered how you reached your conclusion? :)

Totally agree with you about limited in that your street needs to be cabled, I more meant as a platform.

Satellite being one way and cable having talkback ( yes there are disadvantages to that as well!)

Things like VOD seems to be very much the new selling point for tv - watch what you want when you want etc.

In America cable is the forerunner, even Murdoch has been trying to get out of his satellite business over there.

Cable I think has suffered from poor investment/bad intergration/poor marketing/poor encryption and too many different franchises for some time.

It really lost ground when Sky turned to Digital and Cable was slow off the mark.

I was more looking at it from a future proof prospective.

Crazy
 
vibe would suit me,if it wasn't for the sake of that lot that had the squarial then S** wouldn't have been able to place us in the position we're in now.
 
Totally agree with you about limited in that your street needs to be cabled, I more meant as a platform.

Satellite being one way and cable having talkback ( yes there are disadvantages to that as well!)

Things like VOD seems to be very much the new selling point for tv - watch what you want when you want etc.

In America cable is the forerunner, even Murdoch has been trying to get out of his satellite business over there.

Cable I think has suffered from poor investment/bad intergration/poor marketing/poor encryption and too many different franchises for some time.

It really lost ground when Sky turned to Digital and Cable was slow off the mark.

I was more looking at it from a future proof prospective.

Crazy


Gotta remeber IPTV is on the way as well, Cable have the perfect network for that already and wont need to do much to get it running.

why you think sky now has a Broadband offering?

Certainly going to be an interesting few months
 
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