All posts by Briantist
Below are all of Briantist's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Josh: Under the EU broadcasting rules, there is no requirement for any channel that is broadcast free-to-air in a member state to restrict broadcasts to within that member state by the use of encryption or any other method.
In fact, other states have a legal duty to allow rebroadcast of such channels, as long as no payment is demanded for reception of such re-broadcasts.
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Mike Dimmick: It's here SES Contracts New Capacity with ITV | Business Wire
"SES Astra announced today that it has signed an agreement for satellite capacity with ITV, the UK commercial broadcaster. The long-term agreement provides for the renewal of ITV's existing capacity and for additional capacity to support future development with ITV's channel offer. ITV currently utilizes six transponders at ASTRA's prime 28.2 degrees East orbital position, serving the UK and Ireland. Under the new contract it will progressively activate three further transponders."
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Trevor Harris: If Ofcom DO offer C37 for public service broadcasting as a SFN, then the BBC adding this to 80 existing sites, as appears to be the plan, the additional costs will be quite marginal.
Another effect of the new Astra capacity being taken by ITV is there will be room for another BBC stream on Astra 2D transponder 50.
Looking to the Olympics next year, the BBC has already said that BBC three will be used 24/7 for the Olympics (and BBC Parliament will close for the duration).
I rather suspect that BBC HD will become BBC TWO HD and the third slot become BBC three HD so there will be three HD channels for the Olympics at the very least.
BBC three has also just won "Digital Channel of the Year" - The Press Association: Stars see Sherlock pick up TV gong .
I also suspect that, at least for the Olympics, BBC three HD will be put onto the BBCB multiplex, in the place where Channel 5 HD will go at the end of the year.
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Mike Dimmick: I'm not so sure if the Lyngsat "transponder ownership" symbols are much more than a guess, given that they use "Freesat" logos for some but "Freesat" is not a broadcaster, just a co-ordination and marketing company.
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NottsUK: It is probably worth pointing out that for most non-premium Channels, the cost of "providing the EPG, and the free dish and box offer" is set by Sky to ofset the money that SSSL takes from the viewer.
Basically, the "platform access cost" of £234 a year is 100% per home taken by SSSL as their "basic operating costs" and the next level of access (all the basic channels) of £60 per home per year gets ofset too - the costs of encryption and EPG are charged against the subscriber collection.
A few broadcasters who were on the platform from the beginning, which includes UKTV and Viacom get a few pennies per viewer, everyone else gets their channel carried.
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Les Nicol: I'm not sure if I really buy the "a gamble on Murdoch's part" for several reasons:
1) The gamble was at "small change" levels by comparison. Sky when it was "loosing money hand over fist" was in the terms of about a million-quid-a-week. Sky now takes in about £115 million-quid-a-week.
2) It wasn't just Murdoch's money. When BSB and Sky Ltd merged to form BSkyB, the majority of the money was the BSB shareholders. As I am sure you may recall, BSB held 90% the movie rights, for example. It was BSB that had the sports rights too, and the sports channel. Sky Television used Eurosport before the merger. The idea that it was all "down to Murdoch" is an often-repeated lie.
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Tell you what makes me laugh every time I see it, is the "20 years of Sky Sports" promo with all the logos, because they miss out their original one!
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David: Do you mean the original mast, the one that fell down in cold weather in 1969?
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emma bowen: I suspect you mean "ITV3", rather than "ITV Gold". You can watch ITV3 on Freeview, Freesat and Sky for free.
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Sunday 28 August 2011 8:30AM
Trevor Harris: It is more than likely that if the new Freeview 600MHz capacity becomes available that Ofcom will deem one (C37) for "public service broadcasting", so it will then be shared 50% BBC, 25% ITV, 25% Channel 4. This will be to "compensate" the BBC for the loss of half of multiplex BBCB, and to allow the other two public service broadcasters to double their high definition output. This would be in-line with the legal requirements in the Broadcasting Act 1996.
As ITV2HD and E4HD already exist, and the BBC already requires delivery of all programmes to it in HD, the need for another PSB HD multiplex would not therefore require Ofcom to make any charge for it.