[opendtv] Re: Freesat: 'Final piece in the digital jigsaw'
- From: "Alan Roberts" <roberts.mugswell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 20:04:49 +0100
I seriously doubt it will make any difference at all to existing OTA viewers.
Anyone who seriously wants satellite services has already got them through Sky,
and Freeview (OTA terrestrial) is still growing faster than Sky by quite a lot.
There's a large portion of the UK populace that will not by from Murdoch at any
price, and they're served by analogue and Freeview, now they have a chance to
get more services and HD via satellite, I suspect many will. Current
predictions are for 7% of UK households to have HD reception by 2010, that's
less than Sky's existing penetration and the growth is expected to be on
Freesat.
OTA HD is limited by available rf space, which cannot be released until
analogue switch-off, which started this year and is expected to complete in
2012 or thereabouts. Even then, little of the rele4ased bandwidth is being
offered for HD, only 1 multiplex as far as I can tell. The future of HD in the
UK is in Freesat, expect it to grow very quickly.
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Miller
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:19 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Freesat: 'Final piece in the digital jigsaw'
Do you think though that satellite competition will direct OTA more toward
mobile/portable reception in the UK? My argument has been that terrestrial OTA
is best suited in a competitive market to mobile or easy ubiquitous reception
mobile or portable (but not primarily to cell phone size screens). I believe
this will be the case in the US with current broadcasters and such as Qualcomm,
Dish and possibly AT&T on auctioned spectrum.
Bob Miller
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Alan Roberts
<roberts.mugswell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Because there is still a major tide swell against satellite dishes in the
UK, and cable is a very minor part of the broadcast environment. In my village
(about 200 house over a square mile or so) I have seen not a single satellite
dish. That will soon change, because I'll be getting Freesat as soon as PVRs
come on the market. The UK is not like the US, we are different. OTA broadcast
will remain a major force for way beyond the foreseeable future.
Alan Roberts
----- Original Message ----- From: "Manfredi, Albert E"
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 4:32 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Freesat: 'Final piece in the digital jigsaw'
I have no idea how this works in the UK. A free DBS service with 80
channels at the beginning, and quickly growing to 200 channels, would (should?)
put a quick end to any Freeview DTT or cable TV distribution, I would expect.
Why agonize over how to fit HDTV into the OTA spectrum in the UK, when you get
this new DBS system with HD built in from the start?
In Italy, you do get a few free channels from Sky, but not enough to give
DTT serious competition. So I just don't understand what the deal is in the UK.
Maybe Ofcom is trying to recover all the OTA TV spectrum?
Bert
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