Business Alternatives to Sky/UPC

TomTom

Hi folks, just looking for a bit of help/advice.

I see in the forum charter that non specific hardware request would go into television forum but since everyone is talking about TV shows I though this may be a better area.

At the moment with pubs or hotels you have to buy a particular package type from sky or upc that are very expensive. My problem with this is that in a small rural pub the 600 or so euro a month that sky demand for sky sports, espn and setanta is just way to much and in the current climate is not feasible. The flip side of this is if you want to draw any form of weekend crowd you have to have all sports events available and in many cases show different programs at the same time. (racing on some TV's and soccer on the other).

The price you pay is based on capacity and turn over figures and I think sky have a very disturbed idea of what overheads pubs actually face. I called UPC for quotes on their system and the price was not that much different.

What I am asking here is if anyone knows and legal and above board solutions that are slightly less costly? The only service options we have (that I know of) are Sky and UPC. We have had a ton of people offer to install a domestic connection in the pub for us but the flip side of this is that if sky catch you, which has happened to a few pubs in the past few years they may not ask you to back pay but in some cases tie you into a years contract that could cost you nearly 8,000 euro. There is also the fact that they over charge so much special events such as fights.

We have one guy currently offering us a solution that seems to solve all our problems but he is very slow in coming forward with the details so it is making us very wary of dealing with him.

watty

It's doubtful that any of the alternatives are legal as they are packages for Domestic viewing and the "TV sans frontieres" only applies to Domestic viewing. Also they have very limited English content, being intended for Albania, Arab Countries or other non-English markets.

You also have to have a Performance Licence to have TV or Radio.

This is discussed here: Foreign Satellite Forum I'm also started writing an article here: http://www.techtir.ie/tv-radio/pay-tv I or someone posting in Foreign Satellite Forum will add details of packages and commerical issues in the next few weeks.

If you want to sleep soundly, either don't bother at all or get a Sky Pub package. You can install Freesat + Irish TV, (no Sky Sports), and then only pay TV licence and Performance licence (IRMA? IMRO ) both of which are needed for Sky solution too.

TomTom

Cheers, I had a feeling that was the case. An IMRO licence is required full stop, even if you want to sign happy birthday.

STB

You should read this thread.

It is a grey area.

"A statement from Sky Italia in June said it was aware of “unscrupulous dealers” selling Sky Italia cards to UK pubs ” in contravention of the terms of use”. The broadcaster warned it would “terminate viewing without warning”.

In other words until the Murphy case is decided there is nothing else they can do.

http://www.essexaerials.org.uk/sky-italia.html (Read left hand side)

http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=67232 (MPS has no jurisdiction here)