Good news - Bad news

Biggins

Good news:
It took three years but it looks like SKY prices are going to be FINALLY forced to come down. Sky's "stranglehold" on Premiership football could soon be at an end as Ofcom, the communications regulator, is preparing to force Sky to allow its rivals to show Sky Sports and Sky Movies on their platforms. At present, Sky can charge whatever it likes to broadcast its Sky Sports and Sky Movies channels.

Bad news: It only applies to England. Our Irish state consumer organisations are so far behind, they haven't even put their feet on the starting blocks in order to combat the strong monopoly SKY has in Ireland
Story HERE and HERE

Good News: Three huge developers so far have been recently held to account in Ireland for their crazy Irish Tiger actions.

Bad news: Two of them this week or already, are doing a runner from the state (not penniless I suspect - money abroad?) before the state can salvage the wreckage they have left behind. They say it might be just temporary (Yea right!). One is heading for Marbella and the other is already in Africa! Both being states by sheer coinsidence where extradition laws might as well be non-existant.
Story HERE

Good news: Gardi are to finally start investigating who helped cover up the crimes of those within the clergy that abused for generations. The investigations will NOT be just confined to the clergy. Quote:

Those who are expected to be interviewed include the retired Cardinal Desmond Connell and the retired chief superintendents Maurice O'Connor and Joe McGovern.

Bad News: The report is expected to take several months to complete and then it will be given to Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy. He will decide whether the report should be forwarded to the DPP.
(So place your bets to if any one at all will be held accountable or amazingly slip through the legal cracks!)
Story HERE

Good News: Saddam Hussein’s infamous henchman “Chemical Ali” was sentenced to death today for ordering a poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

Bad News: There is none except that sadly his victims were never able to see justice be done.
Story HERE

xw2lj9uspm1eyh

Think you should do the bad news first got my hopes up about sky there for a sec .

jumpguy

The bad news virtually voids the good news in alot of those stories.

kraggy

How do you reckon Sky have a monopoly in Ireland?

Anyone I know has NTL. Just one friend has Sky.

Plus, you can get skysports and movies with Ntl.

Biggins

kraggy wrote: »

How do you reckon Sky have a monopoly in Ireland?

Anyone I know has NTL. Just one friend has Sky.

Plus, you can get skysports and movies with Ntl.

Correct - but as regards the prices they are actually allowed to set, there is no direct competition to those prices in which they charge.
NTL, etc buy the actual stations off SKY.

As quoted regarding the case in England:

Sky can charge its rivals whatever it likes to broadcast its Sky Sports and Sky Movies channels, and it is not obliged to make the content available to everyone.
Virgin Media currently hosts Sky's sport channels, but the price it is forced to pay Sky is so high that Virgin is understood to actually lose money. BT says the prices currently charged by Sky are too high to contemplate.

They operate the exact same way in Ireland with even higher prices being charged to possible upcoming rivals and to the customers.
We have indeed other cable satellite stations but what is not widely known is that they actually buy the stations from SKY who have a current monopoly in this area and a monopoly on sharing those satellite signals for what can be seen currently.

MaybeLogic

Re: the Child Abuse;
Reinstating the law making it illegal not to report a crime would be a first step if the government is actually serious about tackling this issue.

TheZohanS

Biggins wrote: »

Sky's "stranglehold" on Premiership football could soon be at an end as Ofcom, the communications regulator, is preparing to force Sky to allow its rivals to show Sky Sports and Sky Movies on their platforms.

That's not necessarily a good thing. When SKY had the outright rights to the footie it meant one sub to get all the football, then when Setanta came along it was an additional €20 p/m so it became more expensive to watch all televised games.

We'll end up paying more in the long run.

Ickle Magoo

Biggins wrote: »

It only applies to England.

Better news; it will also apply to Scotland, Wales and NI - still not Eire tho, which stinks.

Biggins

TheZohan wrote: »

That's not necessarily a good thing. When SKY had the outright rights to the footie it meant one sub to get all the football, then when Setanta came along it was an additional €20 p/m so it became more expensive to watch all televised games.

We'll end up paying more in the long run.

We are paying more in the long run (as far as I can see).
BT (and others) partial argument was that in order for customers to get say... SKY Sports, they have to already be signed up to a basic package (and subsequent stations) that they don't/might not want.
So if you want to see a footie game, your paying twice already (actually three times if you include your tv licence).

With the change in the British laws, they are likely to see an average saving per month of £14+.
X by 12 months, thats a good saving for anyone.