Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/

How are sky getting away with it?

  • 09-11-2009 08:00AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭


    Ok, after a long conversation down the pub over the weekend ive came to these conclusions....

    Sky are a BRITISH company and have nothing IRISH about them?
    Irish customers are paying their subs into the UK and paying UK VAT?
    Irish customers are paying much higher costs than UK subscribers?

    Now my arguments are these.......

    Why is the Irish government allowing a foreign broadcaster to broadcast digital TV here, thus there is no revenue to the irish exchequer? (Must be millions of euros leaving this country UK bound?)

    Ireland has a population of approx 5m (UK 60+m), So why are our subs so much higher than the UK, when i thought TV rights were sold on a poulation priced scale, (The rights to say sports/programming in a country the size of ireland should be much lower), but we are paying the highest prices in Europe for pay tv. So Is our sky packages the UK rights+the Irish rights, thus the higher prices?

    As SKY is a BRITISH provider, what is stopping the likes of Canal+ offering services here in Ireland (Legally)?

    If Ireland had a true Irish provider and say Soccer rights were up for grabs, we should be able to buy them at a much lower cost Due to population of this country and not the combined UK+Ireland poulation amount of around 70m?

    Until talking about this down the boozer, I really didnt understand all this, But now ive looked into it it really stinks.

    Not only cross border shopping is killing this country, we have a UK Pay TV provider raking in millions of euros for the UK exchequer.

    So in a nutshell, Sky should have a Irish company, based in Ireland and not the UK and our TV rights should be sold to us on a population basis so that we are not sold Sporting rights at the UK+Ireland rates.

    So basically also pubs are showing foreign providers (Sky), so why cant they show another euro foreign provider eg, canal+. Sky cannot call themselves an Irish provider if they are doing all their business from the UK?

    So is the Republic of Ireland really a republic or are we still part of the UK, it really needs to be one or the other, because at the moment we really are being ripped off.

    Rant over, but you can see why this country is in the state it is.


«13

Comments

  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 8,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭mossym


    if you order something from the internet from the uk, say amazon, how much VAT do the irish government get?

    if someone in the UK orders something from Ireland, how much do the UK government get?

    it's interesting what you say about less people should mean lower prices, in nearly every view of economics the complete opposite is true.

    and we did have an irish provider, they charged way more than sky for way less programming, they went bust, and now they are double and triple charging the few customer they have left.


    be careful what you wish for


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 23,540 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    snaps wrote: »
    Ok, after a long conversation down the pub over the weekend ive came to these conclusions....

    Sky are a BRITISH company and have nothing IRISH about them?

    They have a call centre and equipment distribution centre in Cork, they also sub contract to many Irish installers.
    snaps wrote: »
    Irish customers are paying their subs into the UK and paying UK VAT?
    Irish customers are paying much higher costs than UK subscribers?

    Yes
    snaps wrote: »
    Now my arguments are these.......

    Why is the Irish government allowing a foreign broadcaster to broadcast digital TV here, thus there is no revenue to the irish exchequer? (Must be millions of euros leaving this country UK bound?)

    European competition law and TV without borders legislation.

    Satellite works in such a way that you are going to get spill over into neighbouring territories, EU law then says people have a right to receive and subscribe to services that spill over from neighbouring countries.

    Given our geographic location, we are naturally going to receive spill over from the UK and given we share a language with them it isn't surprising that many people want to subscribe to Sky.
    snaps wrote: »
    Ireland has a population of approx 5m (UK 60+m), So why are our subs so much higher than the UK, when i thought TV rights were sold on a poulation priced scale, (The rights to say sports/programming in a country the size of ireland should be much lower), but we are paying the highest prices in Europe for pay tv. So Is our sky packages the UK rights+the Irish rights, thus the higher prices?

    We pay higher subs because they can and there is less competition in the Irish TV market. In the UK Sky and Virgin (cable) compete with Freeview (30 free channels on every TV) and Freesat, thus their share of the market is much lower then in Ireland, where they basically only compete with four channel analogue.

    Nothing to do with UK rights, just basic rip off Ireland.
    snaps wrote: »
    As SKY is a BRITISH provider, what is stopping the likes of Canal+ offering services here in Ireland (Legally)?

    Nothing stopping them, they could if they want.

    (However we would need bigger dishes to pick it up).

    They don't because Sky has the market sown up. Canal+ doesn't have English speaking channels, almost all encrypted English speaking channels use Sky's encryption system and are part of the Sky EPG.

    Also Sky has bought up the sporting rights to most sports in Ireland. Often I'd guess Sky gets the Irish rights for free or close enough when buying the UK rights, due to how much they spend on the UK rights.
    snaps wrote: »
    If Ireland had a true Irish provider and say Soccer rights were up for grabs, we should be able to buy them at a much lower cost Due to population of this country and not the combined UK+Ireland poulation amount of around 70m?

    That is how RTE works, they buy the rights for just Ireland and it is much cheaper for them then. The downside of this is RTE can't be carried Free To Air on satellite as then people in the UK might be able to receive it and there is an argument that they would then have to pay for UK rights (I'm not convinced of this, but it is an argument for another day).

    Again UK and Irish rights have little to do with the cost of Sky, Sky probably pay less for Irish rights then anyone else could, due to them getting deals when buying the UK rights.
    snaps wrote: »
    So in a nutshell, Sky should have a Irish company, based in Ireland and not the UK and our TV rights should be sold to us on a population basis so that we are not sold Sporting rights at the UK+Ireland rates.

    Legally they don't and it wouldn't make any difference to cost, actually it would probably increase the cost due to having to pay Irish VAT (21.5% versus 17.5%).

    Interestingly there is an argument that Sky should be paying Irish VAT, Amazon.co.uk now charges Irish VAT as EU law requires, at least any internet business, who does business over a certain threshold into another EU country to charge VAT in that country. I'm surprised the same doesn't apply to Sky, it probably should, but then it would probably lead to higher prices for us.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 23,540 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    mossym wrote: »
    if you order something from the internet from the uk, say amazon, how much VAT do the irish government get?

    Actually amazon.co.uk charge 21.5% VAT and 100% goes to the Irish government.

    This is due to EU legislation that specifies a certain threshold over which companies are required to pay the VAT of the country the order is coming from.

    However I think it only applies to Internet retailers.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    Interesting reply BK, thanks. I for one dont have sky and get all my TV from offical subs in europe, even watched the PPV boxing for free on sat night.

    I didnt think this law/ regulation had come into force "European competition law and TV without borders legislation. " yet?

    When you say overspill, with satellite tv most satellites that broadcast over europe has overspill over most of europe, apart from the tighter beams used by Thor (Nordic), Astra 2 (UK/Ireland), Turksat (Turkey).

    So saying this, say just for example, Canal+ France (Same kind of population as UK) wanted to sell subs into Ireland legally and compete with Sky, can they?

    Im not 100% sure how Canal+ scandinavia operate as they broadcast to 4 different countries, but do they have 1 base say in Sweden and pay only 1 lot of VAT? Or do they have 4 seperate companys covering Norway, Denmark, Sweden & Finland, thus paying the different VAT rates in those countries?

    Im just amazed that we the Irish consumer are pumping huge amounts of VAT across the border into the UK. The Irish government should be doing their best to stem this flow of lost revenue?


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 8,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭mossym


    bk wrote: »
    Actually amazon.co.uk charge 21.5% VAT and 100% goes to the Irish government.

    This is due to EU legislation that specifies a certain threshold over which companies are required to pay the VAT of the country the order is coming from.

    However I think it only applies to Internet retailers.
    cheers, i didn't know that. amazon was a bad example above so..

    however i do now that a lot of the smaller home cinema/Cycling shops i order stuff from in the UK charge uk vat and the money doesn't go to the Irish government. it must be based on a threshold level as you say above


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    mossym wrote: »
    if you order something from the internet from the uk, say amazon, how much VAT do the irish government get?

    if someone in the UK orders something from Ireland, how much do the UK government get?

    I possibly wouldnt say many people order stuff on the internet from Ireland? If you look on ebay for example Irish prices are much higher?


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 8,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭mossym


    snaps wrote: »
    I possibly wouldnt say many people order stuff on the internet from Ireland? If you look on ebay for example Irish prices are much higher?

    oh you're right there, but if they did the irish government would pocket the cash. It's just our own fault we don't produce anything people would want to order..

    i was just using it to point out that if we could figure out something apart from Guinness to sell we'd take advantage of this as well


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭Red Sleeping Beauty


    mossym wrote: »
    if you order something from the internet from the uk, say amazon, how much VAT do the irish government get?
    mossym wrote: »
    cheers, i didn't know that. amazon was a bad example above so..

    however i do now that a lot of the smaller home cinema/Cycling shops i order stuff from in the UK charge uk vat and the money doesn't go to the Irish government. it must be based on a threshold level as you say above


    Amazon sell DVDs from ship from outside the UK/EU from Jersey. If the value's over €22 you've to pay VAT on it. As has been said, if an online retailer is doing significant business in one country, they've to sign up to be VAT registered and go by the books. I think the threshold is around 50k a year or something.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    mossym wrote: »
    oh you're right there, but if they did the irish government would pocket the cash. It's just our own fault we don't produce anything people would want to order..

    i was just using it to point out that if we could figure out something apart from Guinness to sell we'd take advantage of this as well

    LOL even Guinness is cheaper if brought abroad! I got 18 cans for 12£ in the UK last week!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Tony


    Thats not the full story, out vat rate is higher than others and our cost base is higher. Dont get me wrong Im not saying this accounts for all the difference in price but until we are on a level playing field with other economies there will be little or no pressure to match prices. As for sky, the charge ROI more because people pay it, simple as.


    mossym wrote: »
    It's just our own fault we don't produce anything people would want to order..

    Owner: satellite.ie



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 301 ✭✭Bozacke


    Interesting discussion and I've never been a big fan of SKY since I'm a believer in FTA and I could never understand how Sky could charge so much when the majority of the channels are FTA.

    I know if you're an Irish business and you buy something from the UK, if you provide your Irish VAT registration number, you don't have to pay UK VAT. I wonder if this applies to Pubs when they are paying for SKY?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Tony


    This is true but since vat is claimed back anyway it really makes no difference to the cost so it matters not to the business whether its Irish or Uk vat.

    Bozacke wrote: »
    I know if you're an Irish business and you buy something from the UK, if you provide your Irish VAT registration number, you don't have to pay UK VAT. I wonder if this applies to Pubs when they are paying for SKY?

    Owner: satellite.ie



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    Bozacke wrote: »
    I know if you're an Irish business and you buy something from the UK, if you provide your Irish VAT registration number, you don't have to pay UK VAT. I wonder if this applies to Pubs when they are paying for SKY?

    eem interesting


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    So ive missed something here? If they have a call center etc in cork how comes the VAT is still charged at UK rate and going back to the UK and not staying here?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 742 ✭✭✭channelsurfer


    snaps wrote: »
    So ive missed something here? If they have a call center etc in cork how comes the VAT is still charged at UK rate and going back to the UK and not staying here?
    because the call centre is not owned by sky. it is outsourced to the crowd in cork to deal with a certain amount of sales calls. most customer service calls still go through scotland or india.... they are still a uk based company and are registered for VAT purposes in the UK. your agreement is with a UK company who pay tax in the UK because of EU arrangements that mean you can sell in one country and take your profits in another.....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 484 ✭✭Bodan


    snaps wrote: »
    Ok, after a long conversation down the pub over the weekend ive came to these conclusions....

    Sky are a BRITISH company and have nothing IRISH about them?
    Irish customers are paying their subs into the UK and paying UK VAT?
    Irish customers are paying much higher costs than UK subscribers?

    Now my arguments are these.......

    Why is the Irish government allowing a foreign broadcaster to broadcast digital TV here, thus there is no revenue to the irish exchequer? (Must be millions of euros leaving this country UK bound?)

    Ireland has a population of approx 5m (UK 60+m), So why are our subs so much higher than the UK, when i thought TV rights were sold on a poulation priced scale, (The rights to say sports/programming in a country the size of ireland should be much lower), but we are paying the highest prices in Europe for pay tv. So Is our sky packages the UK rights+the Irish rights, thus the higher prices?

    As SKY is a BRITISH provider, what is stopping the likes of Canal+ offering services here in Ireland (Legally)?

    If Ireland had a true Irish provider and say Soccer rights were up for grabs, we should be able to buy them at a much lower cost Due to population of this country and not the combined UK+Ireland poulation amount of around 70m?

    Until talking about this down the boozer, I really didnt understand all this, But now ive looked into it it really stinks.

    Not only cross border shopping is killing this country, we have a UK Pay TV provider raking in millions of euros for the UK exchequer.

    So in a nutshell, Sky should have a Irish company, based in Ireland and not the UK and our TV rights should be sold to us on a population basis so that we are not sold Sporting rights at the UK+Ireland rates.

    So basically also pubs are showing foreign providers (Sky), so why cant they show another euro foreign provider eg, canal+. Sky cannot call themselves an Irish provider if they are doing all their business from the UK?

    So is the Republic of Ireland really a republic or are we still part of the UK, it really needs to be one or the other, because at the moment we really are being ripped off.

    Rant over, but you can see why this country is in the state it is.

    +1


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,900 ✭✭✭Apogee


    snaps wrote: »
    how comes the VAT is still charged at UK rate and going back to the UK and not staying here?

    Because of the "VAT on E-Commerce Directive (2002/38/EC)"


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭Red Sleeping Beauty


    Tony wrote: »
    Thats not the full story, out vat rate is higher than others and our cost base is higher. Dont get me wrong Im not saying this accounts for all the difference in price but until we are on a level playing field with other economies there will be little or no pressure to match prices. As for sky, the charge ROI more because people pay it, simple as.

    That's not really the full story either. We're overcharged cause in many cases there's no other option or the alternative is rubbish - NTL. We're stuck on an island and have nowhere to go so we get ripped off left right and centre. State of the bloody prices of drinks in pubs! Not just alcoholic drinks either. Bleedin cartels all over the country.

    Also, NTL isn't available everywhere as far as I'm aware. Add to that that we don't have the RTE state broadcaster giving us any kind of "free" TV like BBC have done so it's not just "people are thick and they pay it so that's why Sky get away with it". There's always more to it than that but Sky have exploited the situation extremely well to their advantage.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 96 ✭✭AcePuppetMaster


    Best I heard was my ex wife rang to cancel her sky movies packages and they offered her 10 euro off a month, she refused so then they offered her the movies for 25 euro a month plus her 6 packages!!! Here's eeejit over here paying nearly 45 euro for movies and 3 packages!

    Sky Humbug!:mad::mad::mad:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,018 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    Why is the Irish government allowing a foreign broadcaster to broadcast digital TV here

    How do you propose they might stop them ?

    Twenty years ago there were a lot of countries in Europe which tried to stop their citizens recieving foreign broadcasts but then...........:rolleyes:


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,138 ✭✭✭snaps


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    How do you propose they might stop them ?

    Twenty years ago there were a lot of countries in Europe which tried to stop their citizens recieving foreign broadcasts but then...........:rolleyes:

    The point im trying to make is that Sky ireland should be sky ireland and not sky ireland uk!

    How many other broadcasters in europe broadcast from another country to another country?

    I started this thread because of the state of the economy and making a point why we are in this mess........100's of millions of lost revenue going to the UK government!

    Add that with the cross border shopping and the figure i would think would be huge??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,435 ✭✭✭✭redout


    There is a government regulation of some sort which makes it mandatory for Sky to broadcast RTE in Ireland.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,900 ✭✭✭Apogee


    redout wrote: »
    There is a government regulation of some sort which makes it mandatory for Sky to broadcast RTE in Ireland.

    There isn't. The Irish government has no say over what Sky broadcasts into Ireland.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Tony


    I repeat

    "Im not saying this accounts for all the difference in price but until we are on a level playing field with other economies there will be little or no pressure to match prices"

    Nobody puts a gun to anyones head and forces them to buy sky, they will keep charging as long as people keep paying.

    Alan Rouge wrote: »
    That's not really the full story either. We're overcharged cause in many cases there's no other option or the alternative is rubbish - NTL. We're stuck on an island and have nowhere to go so we get ripped off left right and centre. State of the bloody prices of drinks in pubs! Not just alcoholic drinks either. Bleedin cartels all over the country.

    Also, NTL isn't available everywhere as far as I'm aware. Add to that that we don't have the RTE state broadcaster giving us any kind of "free" TV like BBC have done so it's not just "people are thick and they pay it so that's why Sky get away with it". There's always more to it than that but Sky have exploited the situation extremely well to their advantage.

    Owner: satellite.ie



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Tony


    Why? They are an EU company and as such are quite free to trade here in the same way that Setanta were free to trade in the UK.

    snaps wrote: »
    The point im trying to make is that Sky ireland should be sky ireland and not sky ireland uk!

    Owner: satellite.ie



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Tony


    Apogee wrote: »
    There isn't. The Irish government has no say over what Sky broadcasts into Ireland.

    Quite correct, Comreg tried and failed to regulate sky.

    Owner: satellite.ie



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,683 ✭✭✭Kensington


    redout wrote: »
    There is a government regulation of some sort which makes it mandatory for Sky to broadcast RTE in Ireland.
    No such agreement whatsoever. Sky carry RTÉ on their platform, at no cost to RTÉ, because it suits sky to have them in their TV packages - simple as. If RTÉ wasn't on sky, sky risk losing people to UPC or alternative means of receiving TV.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,435 ✭✭✭✭redout


    Apogee wrote: »
    There isn't. The Irish government has no say over what Sky broadcasts into Ireland.
    Kensington wrote: »
    No such agreement whatsoever. Sky carry RTÉ on their platform, at no cost to RTÉ, because it suits sky to have them in their TV packages - simple as. If RTÉ wasn't on sky, sky risk losing people to UPC or alternative means of receiving TV.

    I recall one of the satellite installers on here making such a claim about a year ago and that is were I picked it up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 17,023 ✭✭✭✭MisterAnarchy


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    How do you propose they might stop them ?

    Twenty years ago there were a lot of countries in Europe which tried to stop their citizens recieving foreign broadcasts but then...........:rolleyes:

    Its one rule for Sky and another rule for their rivals.
    Look at how Sky sued publicans that showed Premiership soccer on foreign satellite providers despite the so called television without frontiers directive in the EU.
    Sky have used strongarm and questionable tactics in the past.
    The last year they have been doing a lot of back tracking, as this December UK laws are changing, being enforced by the EU

    Sky no longer take people to court for showing games broadcast from an EU provider, they now only take (illegal) action against pubs showing games from broadcasters from OUTSIDE of the EU (such as Arabic and Albanian ones)


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 726 ✭✭✭Mr. Frost


    snaps wrote: »
    If Ireland had a true Irish provider and say Soccer rights were up for grabs, we should be able to buy them at a much lower cost Due to population of this country and not the combined UK+Ireland poulation amount of around 70m?

    I think there's a lot wrong with what you're saying but, most notably this:

    Prices to get the rights to broadcast football matches are astronomical. Being a smaller country, a company wouldn't have as many subscribers to pay them (and especially considering hardly EVERY Irish person is going to sign up because their Irish) so would in turn have to charge astronomical fees for such sports packages.


Advertisement