Film Four to drop subscription, "go FTA", and 'free' on Sky

Icehouse

As usual the Guardian's report leaves the blanks to be filled in regarding the sky platform, it's probably safe to suppose FTV or sub cards will still be necessary...


FilmFour relaunches as free-to-air

John Plunkett
Wednesday February 8, 2006


Channel 4 is to relaunch its movie channel FilmFour in July as a free-to-air service, which will be available on Freeview for the first time.
FilmFour, home of British films such as Trainspotting and independent movies from the likes of Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino, will also go from being a premium subscription channel to a free offering on Sky Digital and digital cable TV.

The switch, which has been long been mooted by the Channel 4 chief executive, Andy Duncan, will make the channel available in 18m homes with digital TV, as opposed to the 300,000 who currently pay up to £7 a month for the service.

FilmFour's move follows Channel 4's decision to put another pay-TV service, E4, onto Freeview in May last year. E4 has since almost doubled its audience share, up to 2.3% in 2006 so far, compared with 1.25% in the same period last year.

Sister station FilmFour Weekly, which offered a cinema-style schedule by playing the same three films at the same time each night across the week, is to close.

Full story on The Guardian website (free sub required):
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1705234,00.html

TerrorFirmer

Excellent news. Thank you.

Blaster99

I have a UK FTV card, but I'm fairly sure I can't get E4. Should I? I get C4 ok.

watty

Remind me, What is E4 on Sky, Mix variety pack?

L1011

It and More4 are in Variaty or Entertainment

Film4 should not be under the same contract system, though - but they let us down on More4.

Blaster99

This explains about how to get E4: http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/howtogete4/

It's free on the terrestrial service. It's still pay-TV on Sky. FilmFour might go the same route?

Round Cable

As far as I can see it's going FTV, hopefully it'll be the same as Sky Thrcc on an expired Irish sub card.

pH

I presume this means ads *during* movies and the end to the 'extreme' seasons, a pity because when the director makes a movie he/she is not expecting the narative and tension to be interupted every 15 minues with an ad for a mobile phone company and some lager.

boardy

Icehouse wrote:

E4 has since almost doubled its audience share, up to 2.3% in 2006 so far, compared with 1.25% in the same period last year.

Impressive statistic. Hopefully other channels will follow suit soon to boost their audience numbers.

Mossy Monk

boardy wrote:

Impressive statistic. Hopefully other channels will follow suit soon to boost their audience numbers.

not much good to most of this country who cant get Freeview

boardy

Mossy Monk wrote:

not much good to most of this country who cant get Freeview

I thought that it was going FTA?

"John Plunkett
Wednesday February 8, 2006


Channel 4 is to relaunch its movie channel FilmFour in July as a free-to-air service"

Hagar

Is Film Four going to be free to anyone with a regular Sky Card?

byte

I'll imagine FilmFour will be FTV at best, will be interesting to see if it'll work on an Irish cancelled sub.

JohnC.

It does seem to be FTA, not FTV.

From Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds28928.html

Unlike E4, which is largely FTA but remains a pay TV channel on satellite, FilmFour will be available to all Sky and Freesat viewers.

byte

Kahless wrote:

It does seem to be FTA, not FTV.

From Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds28928.html

I'll believe it when I see it.

Round Cable

Kahless wrote:

It does seem to be FTA, not FTV.

'FilmFour will be available to all Sky and Freesat viewers.'

Sky and Freesat [from Sky] implies FTV, if it were FTA, it would have said free to DSat viewers or something similar.

Icehouse

Round Cable wrote:

Sky and Freesat [from Sky] implies FTV, if it were FTA, it would have said free to DSat viewers or something similar.

I'm not so sure. The MediaGuardian hacks, despite supposedly being specialised in all sorts of media, very often refer to everything satellite as Sky, everything free as FTA (even if it's FTV), etc. To them the only satellite viewers in the UK are those with Sky. Thus confusion every time they report anything satellite-related. Add to that the fact that Sky wait until the very last minute to execute certain contract clauses (as was claimed was the case for More4) and we cannot be sure that FilmFour will be FTA, or for that matter even FTV on satellite. It may well be included in a basic mix on Sky for all we know..."Sky subscribers not having to pay extra" = "free channel"

watty

It would have to be in one of the 6 mix packs. Likely Variety, which with 2 mix or 4 mix somonte with strange tastes might not have.

Last 4 years the GridIron has proved to be totally inaccurate on any Tv/Satellite/Computer reporting.

bk

Well it looks like FilmFour will be going FTV at least

A qutoe from DigitalSpy:

Unlike E4, which is largely FTA but remains a pay TV channel on satellite, FilmFour will be available to all Sky and Freesat viewers.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds28928.html

The only question left is if it will require a FTV card or not.

Either way it is great news, finally we will have a decent movie channel on freesat.

watty

Sky now sees FTA as a threat, hence SKy3 FTV on ROI card. A good chance, I'd think.

Jungle Boy

The FilmFour website now has Q&A on ending its subscription status. It includes

We are going free-to-air, this means the new FilmFour service will soon be available to everyone with digital TV

It sounds like it will be available on a FTA receiver

http://www.channel4.com/film/ffchannel/features/C/changes_at_filmfour.html

Mossy Monk

be wary, they said More 4 would be free for everybody too but that ended up on a Sky package on satellite

Zhane

Mossy Monk wrote:

be wary, they said More 4 would be free for everybody too but that ended up on a Sky package on satellite

That was Skys fault tho wasnt it?

watty

It doesn't much matter whose "fault" it is. C4 has an Encryption contract with Sky, which no doubt to get a discount, C4 may have agreed to all kinds of mad stuff...

I'd by surprised if Film four is less than Free to View. For UK, (their main market) that is almost the same thing as free, and is certainly subscription free.

They question is if Sky decides to make a cancelled Irish card more interesting so that people keep non-sub digiboxes and maybe renew later. Only explination for Sky3 FTV on a cancelled Irish Sub.

vsat

How will I receive FilmFour?
The channel will launch on Freeview for the first time and will continue to be available to all cable and satellite viewers at no additional cost. On digital satellite, the FilmFour Channel will be available to freesat viewers as well as Sky digital subscribers.

byte

Hmm, I get the sneaky feeling it'll be FTV, though I hope it'll be full blown FTA!

Meanwhile, TCM2 is on its way in the coming weeks, which will have a similar format to FilmFour Weekly.

watty

vsat wrote:

How will I receive FilmFour?
The channel will launch on Freeview for the first time and will continue to be available to all cable and satellite viewers at no additional cost. On digital satellite, the FilmFour Channel will be available to freesat viewers as well as Sky digital subscribers.

That's FTV not FTA on Sat then

L1011

watty wrote:

It doesn't much matter whose "fault" it is. C4 has an Encryption contract with Sky, which no doubt to get a discount, C4 may have agreed to all kinds of mad stuff...

Discount? They're paying 17 million quid a year for their EPG carriage + encryption. This may include the carraige for Quiz Call, but even then:

E4/+1
More4/+1
Film4/+1/Weekly
Quiz Call

At 78 grand apeice for EPG would mean that they'd have to pay more than 16 million quid for regionalisation if FTA for there to be a 'discount' . Or just drop that, go to national ads (Five survive fine on national ads) and take their free 104 place...

watty

17 Million *IS* a Discount price

The EPG these days for TV can cost as much as the carriage.

The Encryption is a mad price. EPG and Encryption cost Sky nearly nothing of course.

Why do you think The BBC and ITV got off the Encryption roundabout?

L1011

EPG for a single, FTA, non-regionalised channel, is £78,000 a year. No more.