All posts by Bill Kocher
Below are all of Bill Kocher's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Government to stop Sky charging public service broadcasters for
Saturday 3 August 2013 7:21AM
Newhaven
Saturday 3 August 2013 7:21AM
Newhaven
Facinating discussion re Sky etc.
I won't use Sky for one simple reason - Murdoch!
Freesat gives me all the TV I need and a enough content in HD without paying £10 month to get HD. That's Freesat, not Freesat with Sky. Sometimes I see a programme in the listings on Sky Atlantic or Sky Arts I wish I could watch, but nothing is going to make me pay money to watch the odd program. As I am not an avid sports fan I don't need Sky. I do watch F1 and Tour de France, both still possible on Freesat/Freeview. F1 shared with Sky and TdF on ITV4 for the moment. But as soon as somthing gets popular, Sky can call on the huge reserves of the Murdoch empire to outbid any competion. Sky is like wanting a washing machine and finding you can only go to Currys to buy one and at full price. This is in my opinion not a competitive market place.
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DAB reception disappeared and now is very patchy in Newhaven. Extending aerial helps, but not usual strength.
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I don't watch a lot of BBC3, but the idea we might also lose BBC4 annoys me. The one channel designed for viewers with more than 3 brain cells, and they want to cut that too - maybe! Not everyone wants a diet of Eastenders, Strictly and The Voice. You can tell by this I don't watch any of the above. Does anyone know how much SC4 and Alba cost? These channels are for a minority of Welsh and Gaelic speakers . Maybe the Welsh and Scottish licence fee payers show pay a bonus. Also what will happen to Alba if the Scots vote for independance? Until today I didn't even know the BBC paid for SC4, as I thought it was a Ch4 programme.
With a new Smart TV I have started to watch Netflix and now Amazon streaming programmes, so not adverse to getting my programmes on-line. But to use these services and enjoy them in HD you need at least Infinity to not get drop out, pauses etc.
Final point, just as the BBC gives us BBC3 & 4 in HD they look like they want to cut the channels.
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Also read that BBC had to absorb £253M for World Service. So Licence Fee payer pays for something they can't even watch or listen to! This should be paid by the government if they feel the world should hear our views. Yes I will be paying through taxes for WS, but not the licence fee which is for my direct TV viewing.
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This is the metropolitan elite making changes that will affect those, unlike them, with slow broadband speeds and lack of money to buy fibre connections.
Due to a monumental cock-up by BT, it took them 9 weeks to move my broadband to a new house, so they gave me Infinity 2 for price of basic Infinity for a year. Downloads of 80Mbs in the day with 17Mbs uploads is very nice, but I expect to go down to Infinity 1 when contract runs out in 8 months time when they will want £35 a month for what I have now. Even with these speeds, Netfix can still crash in the evening when speeds drop. Infinity is no guarantee of fast links. I wonder if you have fibre into your house, if it never drops out.
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The whole concept of cancelling your tv licence, just because you don't watch live TV is a nonsense. You are still consuming BBC programmes, but expect them to be provided free. I know at present that's how I pay for BBC content and think it is well worth it. I don't use the Red button services hardly at all. Maybe Wimbledon. Yes I use iPlayer, but feel I shouldn't expect it for free. Either the government changes the rules, so you pay for BBC content however you get it, or we will loose some of the best programmes on TV. I record commercial programmes, so I can skip the ads, which I know are how those programs are paid for.
I am thinking of ditching my phone landline to stop paying silly money for line rental etc., etc and just stick to mobile numbers as we hardly use the phone.
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Yes I do the same and switch channels on BBC news in the morning. Can I also point out the local news is on for about 4, sometime only 3 minutes every half hour. Not 10! I do this using Freeview on my Samsung pressing the program buttons just one up and one down as I have set them next to each othe in Favourites. I do have a Virgin box, but there is no way to move the channels so I could swap easily. I live in a block flats were we can't have a sattelite dish, so no Freesat. We are also pensioners, but hardly ever watch live tv. We use iPlayer, Netflix snd Amazon, or record on the Virgin box.
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Following engineering work on the Brighton (Central) transmitter, the sound on BBC1 is out of sync with the picture. SD is fine, but I don't want to watch programs in 'blur-o-vision' as I refer to SD. Anyone any idea if this will be sorted or is it something I have to sort? Rescan channels etc.
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Thanks SO. Looks like we'll just have to wait for the engineers to 'undo' their changes that have caused this.
I do have Virgin TV were everything is fine, but like to swap between BBC1HD and BBCSE in the morning to see the sometimes 3 minutes of local news in SD. I don't want to watch BBC Breakfast in SD just for 3-5 mins every half hour. Not now I have got a 4Ktv which is great in HD, but SD is awful.
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Thursday 1 August 2013 8:22AM
Newhaven
That was meant to be stations NOT stains!!