[Nigel Goodwin]

Been informed today by Sky that they plan to end the £150 FSFS offer, as it will no longer be required once Freesat launches. It's always been a loss making product for Sky, and was only introduced at the governments 'request' in order to speed up the date for DSO.

No mention whatsoever of anything planned to 'counter' Freesat in any way.

No doubt certain people will claim this is a hoax, until other ASA's are informed by their reps?.

[Orri]

The effect of that would be that Sky can decide that they can sacrifice boxes still under contract in order to improve the EPG, and provide free replacement, and not be accused of trying to generate bussiness. They would still have a duty towards ensuring that boxes bought under their freesat install were not effected.

[ian-d]

Nigel, are you being told that its just the £150 deal going, or the whole service? I'm getting mixed responses through the usual channels at present!

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by ian-d

Nigel, are you being told that its just the £150 deal going, or the whole service? I'm getting mixed responses through the usual channels at present!

That's all we were told, presumably once Freesat starts and CH4 and the Five's go FTA, then there won't be any need for any FTV cards anyway?. Sky 3 could also go FTA, or be moved to a subscription package - either way, no FTV cards would be needed.

[rai uno]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

That's all we were told, presumably once Freesat starts and CH4 and the Five's go FTA, then there won't be any need for any FTV cards anyway?. Sky 3 could also go FTA, or be moved to a subscription package - either way, no FTV cards would be needed.

Don't forget Setanta Sports News is FTV.

[qpw3141]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

Been informed today by Sky that they plan to end the £150 FSFS offer, as it will no longer be required once Freesat launches. It's always been a loss making product for Sky, and was only introduced at the governments 'request' in order to speed up the date for DSO.

No mention whatsoever of anything planned to 'counter' Freesat in any way.

No doubt certain people will claim this is a hoax, until other ASA's are informed by their reps?.

Strangely enough I was going to start a speculative thread on this topic myself

It occured to me this morning that when the C4 and C5 channels go FTA there really won't be a FreesatFromSky.

If you connect a Sky box (sans card) to your dish you'll get exactly the same effect as connecting a Freesat box apart from a difference in the EPG's.

edit: Apart from a couple of very minor channels.

FSFS would become a complete irrelevance (except perhaps for a 'service' Sky promoted with predatory pricing to attempt to ensure people could sign up for Subscription TV at will).

[ian-d]

I always imagined they'd use the freesat cards for a possibly sky+ free option, so they are atleast a one off £20 sale from a customer for the use of the service. Would have imagined it would be easier to control sky+ from a card than not at all!

But also don't forget the cards are used to determine the region, so if they were intending on using boxes only to receive the same as freesat, they'd need a way of it giving you the region in which you live with a card, i don't think thats happening with sky.

Being that Setanta Sports News went FTV recently, i'd suspected that some agreement is in place to drop it to FTA when the others do, or put it on the Setanta package.

[jandt64]

im no expert on this but sky often give mis leading information. my friend rang sky up the other day and was told c4 and c5 were no longer available on the free version even with a veiwing card.

[welshblob]

Interesting, maybe this signals sky is going to do the exact opposite of what we have been expecting? It has always been thought it was good for sky to get their boxes out there with freesat as initially if you had the deal for x months on two mixes then inertia might kick in and people fail to cancel. Also having their kit there makes it easier for people to upgrade to subscription in the future?

I wonder what this also means with the speculation surrounding the dropping of the charge\minimum mix sub to get Sky+ ?

I guess what they may do is sit back and see how much of an impact freesat has first instead of a knee jerk reaction which could cost them a lot of money and not see any significant return?

Just my thoughts

Now shall I sign up for sky+ just to the dish installed or should i just install the one I have sitting up my loft?

Rob

[ian-d]

Originally Posted by jandt64

im no expert on this but sky often give mis leading information. my friend rang sky up the other day and was told c4 and c5 were no longer available on the free version even with a veiwing card.

Don't get confused by information given from Sky CS to general customers and communications to Sky ASA's. Generally speaking the ASA information is accurate, albeit bitty at times, such as this!

I have the same kind of opinion as welshblob, in that i always thought if sky maintain the FSFS option they have an intention to challange freesat in every way possible, but if they drop the FSFS service, they are intending on going subscription focused only (as always been the case) and hope the fear of 'freesat not being able to subscribe in the future' putting viewers off buying into freesat.

[rai uno]

Originally Posted by jandt64

im no expert on this but sky often give mis leading information. my friend rang sky up the other day and was told c4 and c5 were no longer available on the free version even with a veiwing card.

Also, Channel 4 and Five are PSB's, so are required to be Free on all Platforms (ie Either FTA or FTV) for UK viewers.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by ian-d

I have the same kind of opinion as welshblob, in that i always thought if sky maintain the FSFS option they have an intention to challange freesat in every way possible, but if they drop the FSFS service, they are intending on going subscription focused only (as always been the case) and hope the fear of 'freesat not being able to subscribe in the future' putting viewers off buying into freesat.

You mean 'burying their heads in the sand'?

I agree, I didn't imagine they would drop the FSFS service, be interesting to see what happens next?.

Possibly the idea is to replace it with 'Pay once, view for ever' - so you don't have the option of not subscribing from day one?.

[welshblob]

Just had another thought, maybe Sky will offer non-subsidised Sky+ and Sky HD boxes packages which by default would work with freesat and of course would be upgradable to their subscription services. By offering as non-subidised then they wouldn't lose anything but of course the prices would have to be comparable to the freesat service to make it popular.

Of course all speculation .... this is fun isn't it ;-)

Rob

[bignoise]

Originally Posted by qpw3141

when the C4 and C5 channels go FTA

Wait, wait, what's all this "WHEN" stuff? C4 maybe, but C5 have given no indication that they have any intentions at all to go FTA, have they?

[soulboy77]

They may be withdrawing FSFS but you can bet Sky will continue marketing their services aggressively and there will be some 'creative' deals to attract subscriptions at the same time as the launch of Freesat. I also wouldn't discount Sky making one of their channels FTA on Sat as a barker channel and appearing on th Freesat epg.

[qpw3141]

Originally Posted by bignoise

Wait, wait, what's all this "WHEN" stuff? C4 maybe, but C5 have given no indication that they have any intentions at all to go FTA, have they?

Well, if Sky are dropping FSFS then, since C5 must be free on all platforms (a claim frequently made here), it is a logical inevitability that they will have to go FTA (although the same does not apply to their sibling channels).

[ian-d]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

Possibly the idea is to replace it with 'Pay once, view for ever' - so you don't have the option of not subscribing from day one?.

I would have thought they'll promote the 'pay once watch forever' deal more agressively with the stats already showing that 80%(approx) of those continue the sub after 4 months, sky win all round in that deal. But as for a 'pay once view forever' i can't see it, they will loose too much in exactly the same way as they always have with FSFS...unless of course they increase the price to a level they can make a profit at.

[qpw3141]

Pay once watch forever has been a stroke of genius from Sky.

It gets them several things at the expense of subsidising a fairly small number of customers who may well subscribe to something at some time in the future.

There's no doubt that they have some extremely clever people in their marketing department. (Compared with a lot of big name companies who seem st spend as much time shooting themselves in the foot as anything else).

[rai uno]

Originally Posted by bignoise

Wait, wait, what's all this "WHEN" stuff? C4 maybe, but C5 have given no indication that they have any intentions at all to go FTA, have they?

No, quite the reverse.

However, their current Encryption Contract expires this coming June ..............

"Shove over, I want space on 2D!"

[Scrapanatchi]

maybe five hasnt said that they where going FTA because they don't wanna upset sky which they currently have a contract with?

[rai uno]

As Sky are Party to that Contract, I imagine they must not only know when it expires but also be able to work out that it might at least be Five's intention not to renew.

The problem with Five is that their CS and PR people don't understand what "Clear" means !!

[ian-d]

...or FTA, FTV, Digital, TV, Satellite, One, Two, Three, Four, Six

[rai uno]

Originally Posted by ian-d

...or FTA, FTV, Digital, TV, Satellite, One, Two, Three, Four, Six

Quite!

You forgot: "Ar*e" and "Elbow"

[Scrapanatchi]

channel4 get 3 more 2d transponders and five get 2, and the problem would be solved

[Chris Simon]

Originally Posted by bignoise

Wait, wait, what's all this "WHEN" stuff? C4 maybe, but C5 have given no indication that they have any intentions at all to go FTA, have they?

Five's official response to the freesat consultation process was that they "look forward to joining the platform".