ITV, Channel 4

colin300

Does anyone have anymore info on what these are doing?

Also does anyone have a time for the newest free to view or solus cards are going to be turned off?

johnnyq

ITV will probobly be free in the future
CH4 is becoming part of the sky package in Uk
CH5 is same as usual

shinzon

Originally posted by johnnyq
ITV will probobly be free in the future
CH4 is becoming part of the sky package in Uk
CH5 is same as usual

so c4 will not be available on roi subs, and as for c5 what does same as usual mean ????????


shin

colin300

ITV, Channel 4 won't be available on old solus cards I know that but what about the new ones?

and shinzon channel4 was never available on Irish sub.

johnnyq

Originally posted by shinzon
so c4 will not be available on roi subs, and as for c5 what does same as usual mean ?????

They are sticking with the conditional access scheme that the BBC were on for at least 5 years

muffinhead

I got this email from ITV on this issue:

Thank you for your recent enquiry concerning the availability of ITV1 in
Southern Ireland via Digital Satellite.

ITV is a UK broadcaster, which is why our transmissions are only available
to those in the UTV broadcast region of Northern Ireland. The availability
of the UTV regional service was only a temporary situation in the immediate
aftermath of our launch on the satellite platform.

Our services have now been blacked out as we do not have the satellite
Irish programme rights which would allow us to make the service available
to viewers in Southern Ireland via Sky Digital. Cable operators are
covered by European legislation in a way that satellite operators are not.
It is this legislation that allows us to put our signals on overspill cable
networks even though we do not have Irish rights.

UTV as an independent broadcaster are looking into the possibility of
providing their service throughout Ireland on satellite, but there are a
number of issues involved, so they are unable to elaborate any further at
this stage.

Kind Regards,

ITV Duty Office


and I got this email from Sky on this issue:

Dear muffinhead

Thank you for your email about Channel 4 and ITV.

Please allow me to explain that sky is always willing to discuss carriage and, in fact, are already discussing carriage with terrestrial broadcasters on availability and access to these channels for our customers in the Republic of Ireland. However, distribution of these channels is subject to commercial negotiation and the willingness of other broadcasters to be distributed on Sky.

I very much hope that I have clarified our position in this matter and thanks, once again, for contacting us. We always welcome customers’ comments and actively encourage viewers’ feedback.

Thank you for your interest in Sky.

Kind regards

Karen Hames
Viewer Relations


i'm still waiting for an email from ch4 - i'll keep you posted!:D

arkles

Dear muffinhead

watty

Getting Contact Sky to continue receiving theis channel etc on ITV, C4 and Five on a real FTV card, not cancelled UK sub.

However since there is anything between 560,000 and 1 Million people using series 1 FTV cards and series 1 expired UK sub cards in UK, the UK parliament seems to be belatedly waking up to this. C4 and Five may not care for different reasons, but ITV does not want 1 million viewers turned off.

Anything or nothing could happen re. Series 1 cards in next few weeks.

Possibilities:

o ITV keeps paying Sky the encryption fee but goes FTA
o ITV/C4/Five pay for FTV card replacement and new FTV center (unlikely)
o UK Gov. steps in and pays for FTV
o No one pays for FTV, but Sky told it must issue FTV cards to anyone that wants and can charge to cover its costs. Maybe £25 a card?
o Nothing happens and Sky turns off ALL old cards, FTV and old subs.

Sky almost certinally hopes a high percentage will take out new subs (500,000 new subs?). I think NOT. Only people that can't get freefview or Analog will renew, guessing this can't be more than 2,000 to 10,000 of the 560,000 .. 1,000,000 estimated free users on series 1.

No-one actually knows how long a series 2 FTV card or Series 2 cancelled sub card will work. As it does not concern BBC, they can be assumed to be guessing.

o It's in Sky's interest in one sense to imply BBC has caused a problem and turn off anything not a current subscripton. In another sense if people do not blame BBC and take out new subs, Sky will be driving nearly a million housholds to DTT/Freeview and Analog.


We live in interesting times..

Meanwhile many other channels Pay only on Sky are free on other platforms or free on other Satellites.

Sky looks set to take over Five completely (already owns significant portion). Whoud Sky care if Five lost its analog TV franchise given Five's poor analog coverage and obvious desire of Sky to make it a pay channnel?

Five renewed a 3 year encryption contract a few weeks ago with Sky, long before existing one was due to expire.

sceptre

Originally posted by watty
Five renewed a 3 year encryption contract a few weeks ago with Sky, long before existing one was due to expire.

Pretty pointed, that. Most people seem to be coming round to the notion that Five is going to go totally sub at some point. No real loss to be honest.

Sin e an Fear

The ITV Duty Office is staffed by people who are dead from the neck up- hence 'Southern Ireland' and the fact that they can't even be bothered to sign their names. I got a letter back from one such person and sent the letter back with the words 'LEARN TO WRITE A BUSINESS LETTER!'

Thank you for letter of 9 April. I am General Manager - Rights for Channel 4 Television and I am responsible for rights clearance issues and for our negotiations with Irish cable operators.

We are of course keen that people across the island of Ireland should be able to see the Channel 4 service. Channel 4 is extremely popular with cable viewers in Ireland and we are sure that it would be equally popular with satellite viewers. However, European directives which enable us to clear rights quite simply for cable distribution do not apply to satellite distribution.

This is because whereas terrestrial overspill is 'free-to-air', satellite has to be encrypted as it covers a far wider geographical area, and Channel 4 has only cleared rights for the UK.

Therefore, the issue of rights clearance is considerably more complex. Along with many other broadcasters in the island of Ireland, we are investigating a range of options with a view to ultimately being available across the full range of platforms in the Republic of Ireland. I take your point about the technical advantages of satellite transmissions. Namely that people on the south coast of Ireland don't have to put up with S4C.

With regard to the point made in your final paragraph, Channel 4 has a distribution agreement in place with Sky and we have no current plans to move to 'free to air transmissions' on Astra 2D.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Baxter
General Manager - Rights

byte

That must be the first decent reply I have seen from Channel Four. Well done, Sin e an Fear!