Topic: Freeview now in more homes than Sky

[Clive]

Freeview has become the UK's most popular digital TV provider overtaking Sky.

Freeview says it now supplies TV services to 8.2 million homes in the UK - pipping Sky's 8 million - and up from 7.7m at the end of 2006.

Sky aims to be in 10 million homes by 2010. A Sky spokesman said: "In the last quarter, more new customers joined us than at any time since the launch of Freeview."

Cary Wakefield, Freeview's general manager, said: "Over the past four and a half years, Freeview has gone from zero to being the nation's favourite digitial TV provider." Including secondary TV sets within households, Freeview said it is active in more than 11 million homes across the UK.

[Simon]

The trouble with Freeview is, there is still around 30% of the UK population who can't receive it, so what are they going to do when the analogue signal is switched off?  It's not very fair to assume that these people will just get Sky.  Sky is not free, and why should some people be forced to pay for a service, when others can get it free, just because of where they live?

[Reno]

It sounds like an opportunity for someone to start up a new tv service. The person that makes a free tv service could stand to make millions off the commercial revenue.

[Sandra]

Its possibly something you dont have stateside Bob.

We currently have 4 TV broadcast formats in the UK.
Whichever type you receive, or should I say if you receive any of these broadcasts then you have to pay a TV licence fee.
A colour TV Licence costs £135.50 and a black and white licence costs £45.50 per year.

The original free (TV licence still required) analogue terrestrial broadcasts that most of the UK can get that includes BBC1 and BBC2 (non commercial channels) ITV 1, C4 and C5 which are commercial channels.
Some parts of the UK cant get C5.
Starting in 2008 and finishing in 2012 all the analogue TV broadcasts will be switched off.

We then get the option of digital TV services from Cable or Satellite which we can subscribe to for various packages that cover the 5 channels already mentioned plus a selection of others channels.
You can still get the BBC and ITV channels through satellite if you have the correct equipment but dont subscribe but most of the FTA ones are the shopping, god, asian or other crappy channels.

Freeview is a free digital terrestrial broadcast that only requires either a TV with a digital tuner built in or a set top box that can cost from around £30 and apart from the TV licence fee doesnt cost anything to watch.
This has the 5 main channels plus another 40+ radio and TV channels of various quality of content with the option of subscribing to a few more channels for a similar but much smaller choice to the cable and satellite packages.

The more channels available then the less advertising revenue is avaliable per channel.
I believe that this has led to the falling in standards of TV programmes over the years.
Thats why we now get so many "reality" shows, soaps and quiz shows instead of the higher cost decent programmes that we used to get when we only had two or three channels 

The only viable way to get another TV system going would be via the internet but unless they offered different content to the ones already available for free then I cant see it taking off.

[Reno]

To tell you the truth, I don't even watch tv anymore. If there is a show i want to watch i download it. ABC and one of the other network channels hosts watch on demand pages online for reruns of their hit shows. So even if I didn't want to download it off bittorrent I could watch it off their website.

Seriously speaking im surprised some smart person in the UK hasn't setup a tv on demand server hosted offshore. Since it would be run through the net there would be no licenses and being off shore you wouldn't have to worry about copyrights.

[Sandra]

Seriously speaking im surprised some smart person in the UK hasn't setup a tv on demand server hosted offshore. Since it would be run through the net there would be no licenses and being off shore you wouldn't have to worry about copyrights.

Rupert Murdoch wouldnt like that Bob.
He likes to control the UK media and rip the Brits off.

I havent heard whats happened lately but Murdochs lawyers were trying to get an injunction to stop pubs from legally paying for a satellite sports susbcription package for commercial premises from other european countries such as Greece.
They show the same football matches and often have the same commentators as UK SKY cover the games and feed them live throughout europe.
Murdoch can charge around £1,500 per month to a small pub which can then show the games.
If they pay for a Greek subscription they can get the same package for around £250 per month.

Even for a private individual, if you want to see the latest films that UK SKY show for around £3 per film on top of the subscription package that you pay for, it can be worth getting a foreign satellite package as they usually charge in euros what we in the UK would pay in £s, for both the subscription packages and the extra cost per film or pay to view sports events.

Some people even watch the films and sports for free as the encyption for the foreign satellites often isnt as strong as UK SKYs and can be hacked, if you know how 
I dont think that people should do that really as its as bad as downloading films from places such as Bit Torrents sites, sometimes before they are even on general release in the UK 

[GillE]

Nice sentiments, Bob, but it wouldn't work.  The Berne Convention of 1886 covers this potential loophole.

Gill