Sky Christmas are Cotton Headed Ninnymuggins!!!

podgemonster

My OH was browsing ahead on the TV Schedule online looking for some upcoming Christmas Movies on our modest 17 TV channels (RTE, BBC, CH4, E4, CC & some extras). To her dismay she discovered that the only 1 Christmas movie on this week, Polar Express.

After a little googling I discovered that Sky has purchased exclusive UK & Ireland rights to a sled load the Christmas classics such as Home Alone, Elf, Miracle On 34th Street, Love Actually, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Die Hard, Gremlins and Bad Santa to name a popular few.

Although I am aware it is the companies prerogative to attract subscribers I can't help but feel the bubbling anger knowing these traditional movies won't be on our screens this December. There is something special about a collective viewing of a popular film, the live tweets, that text from the brother "hey, Die Hard's on", the office chat about it the next day and quoting session that follows.

"Hans, bubey, I'm your White Knight!"

Even just a casual browse to discover Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci hunting down a kid in his own house will spark a moment of joy akin to hearing "Fairytale of New York" on the radio even though you already have it on your IPod/Mp3/Talkboy. But Sky have taken this Shared Experience away, the films that Sky show will be on a constant looping timetable. (who wants to watch Love Actually at 7 am in the morning???). Sure you can download and use Netflix/DVDs and the likes but it just ain't the same, IMO.

I found an "article" on it written in the Daily Edge which quotes RTE saying....

RTÉ will have a bumper basket of movies this Christmas, both premieres and classic favourites such as Santa Clause 2, Deck the Halls, The Holiday, Fred Claus and Four Christmases to name but a few. The full list of movies will be revealed in a month’s time when we announce our Christmas schedule for RTÉ One and RTÉ2

Santa Claus 2?? Deck the Halls? The fact that they choose to mention these shows a glaring lack of quality. I now wait for the RTE Christmas Guide to reignite my terrestrial viewing spirit hopefully with some Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, ET, Star Wars, War of the Buttons etc...

I found very little outrage online and do wonder am I alone in this? I was abroad last Christmas so I may be late to the party...

Decuc500

podgemonster wrote: »

I found very little outrage online and do wonder am I alone in this? I was abroad last Christmas so I may be late to the party...

"Welcome to the party, pal!"

Whatever about Sky Christmas, I'm annoyed that Sky edit films for bad language that you rent on-demand, like they're some sort of moral watchdogs. It'll drive me back to Xtra-vision.

Sonic Death Monkey

Paying for Sky....

.."bunch of f*ckin' amateurs!"

podgemonster

lazeedaisy wrote: »

Is it Sky you are complaining about as it is not really clear, they have quite a few Christmas movies on today

The TL:DR version: I am complaining about the removal of popular Christmas movies from Terrestrial (RTE) and non-subscription (Ch4, E4, ITV) channels by Sky thus erasing the national (even trans-IrishSea) shared experience of people collectively enjoying a movie and the follow-up enjoyable online or in-person discussions that happen afterwards.

For example...
I have Face/Off on dvd
I have Face/Off on Netflix
I have a mp4 of Face/Off on my harddrive
I do not plan to watch Face/Off on any of these platforms tonight

However if i came home tonight, turned on RTE2 and saw Nicholas Cage smoking a cigarette with his Face ripped off. I would definitely watch it, probably tweet about it and first question at Lunch the next day would be "anyone see Face/Off last night"

tunguska

Thats just mean spirited and nasty. Whoever made that decision needs to stop being such a money hungry dick...... It'll get to the stage where You'll have to pay a subscription to Sky to put up a crimbo tree in your own gaff.

IvaBigWun

So Die Hard wont be on any other UK TV channel except Sky this Christmas?

IvaBigWun

PS: Isnt Elf on Channel 4 a years long tradition for them?

podgemonster

IvaBigWun wrote: »

PS: Isnt Elf on Channel 4 a years long tradition for them?

It was from 2007 until 2013. That's over now.

Here's an article on the telegraph about it
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10526480/Did-Sky-steal-Christmas.html

oh and yeah as far as i know Die Hard won't be on anything other than Sky

frisbeeface

Frozen seems to be front and centre of all their Christmas channel ads but I wouldn't consider it a Christmas movie. Am I alone in this? It has snow and reindeer I suppose.

Dman001

Step 1: Get a Netflix Subscription
Step 2: Access the different Netflix Regions via means I cannot mention here
Step 3: Watch more Christmas films than either Sky or Irish/UK channels provide
Step 4: Profit???

podgemonster

Ummmm

podgemonster wrote: »

Sure you can download and use Netflix/DVDs and the likes but it just ain't the same, IMO.

IvaBigWun

Dman001 wrote: »

Step 1: Get a Netflix Subscription
Step 2: Access the different Netflix Regions via means I cannot mention here
Step 3: Watch more Christmas films than either Sky or Irish/UK channels provide
Step 4: Profit???

Step 5: None of the Netflix regions, as far as Im aware, have Die Hard, Elf or Home Alone to name just three.

Goolay

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Step 5: None of the Netflix regions, as far as Im aware, have Die Hard, Elf or Home Alone to name just three.

No Die Hard but Elf is on Netflix Canada and Home Alone is on Netflix Brazil

podgemonster

Dman001 wrote: »

Step 1: Get a Netflix Subscription
Step 2: Access the different Netflix Regions via means I cannot mention here
Step 3: Watch more Christmas films than either Sky or Irish/UK channels provide
Step 4: Profit???

Goolay wrote: »

No Die Hard but Elf is on Netflix Canada and Home Alone is on Netflix Brazil

Again you are both missing the point of this thread. It is about the Nationwide shared viewing experience. Not everyone has Netflix (i do) but 99.9% of households have terrestrial TV. These will not be showing any decent Christmas movie.

Plus many us are not really going to go through the effort for getting off the couch and dusting off the dvd player to watch a Christmas movie we've seen a billion times from start to finish. But when we stumble on it while channel hopping it's a nice Christmassy suprise.

Plus any decent Die Hard fan has the trilogy anyway.

FunLover18

podgemonster wrote: »

Again you are both missing the point of this thread. It is about the Nationwide shared viewing experience. Not everyone has Netflix (i do) but 99.9% of households have terrestrial TV. These will not be showing any decent Christmas movie.

Plus many us are not really going to go through the effort for getting off the couch and dusting off the dvd player to watch a Christmas movie we've seen a billion times from start to finish. But when we stumble on it while channel hopping it's a nice Christmassy suprise.

Plus any decent Die Hard fan has the trilogy anyway.

You will now. Christmas tradition to do just that with Die Hard. It's a Christmas must. Who has time to be bloody tweeting through a Christmas classic like Die Hard anyway #idratherwatchthefilm and as regard to going into work the next morning, regardless of whether they saw it the previous night most people have seen all the classics anyway.

cloud493

I have all the mentioned movies on blu ray, but theres something about watching it on terrestrial tv. Traditional etc.

Zubeneschamali

cloud493 wrote: »

theres something about watching it on terrestrial tv.

I remember movies on terrestrial TV.

Ad breaks. Melonfarming censorship. Pan and scan. Crappy sound. Starting at the wrong time because of some kick-ball game running late.

Those were the days.

Yeah I think it's the fact the TV channel does all the work for you and that you're watching it along with a large proportion of the country.

thorbarry

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I remember movies on terrestrial TV.

Ad breaks. Melonfarming censorship. Pan and scan. Crappy sound. Starting at the wrong time because of some kick-ball game running late.

Those were the days.

Ha, I haven't watched a movie on terrestrial TV in years. I got rid of UPC a few months back, now I watch what I want to watch, instead of browsing through sh1te and watching ads

Frank O. Pinion

I "get" the enjoyment of watching Christmas classics on terrestrial TV. I do. It's just that it's so...outdated, and increasingly so. I don't have Sky or Netflix, I have Freesat and a hard-drive with hundreds of movies, most of them Blu-ray copies. All connected, ready to go, with the push of a button, no messing about with actual DVD discs. From next week or so, I'll have a folder on the HD, "Christmas Movies", and we'll watch one each day or every other day. The Polar Express, Elf, Jingle All The Way, The Nightmare Before Christmas, to name a few. We usually throw in the Back To The Future trilogy and the Rocky series, as well.

Plus, on Christmas Eve/Day we'll have A Christmas Story playing all day on repeat like they do in America. Not only one of the best Christmas movies ever, one of the best movies in general ever.

Side note: we don't actually even celebrate Christmas. Just love the movies.

Good grief....the same movie on repeat all day = murderous rage!

tunguska

cloud493 wrote: »

I have all the mentioned movies on blu ray, but theres something about watching it on terrestrial tv. Traditional etc.

+1. Its a collective experience, that's the point. It happens less and less now and I Dont think we're better off because of the technology that's meant to make things more convenient.

Frank O. Pinion

Deleted User wrote: »

Good grief....the same movie on repeat all day = murderous rage!

It's an American tradition. Have you seen A Christmas Story?

cloud493

I've watched home alone every christmas at least twice, for as long as I can remember, from VHS to dvd to blu ray. Can't imagine not watching it.

A Disgrace

Yeah, there’s something communal about watching ‘live’ tv. Especially on Christmas Day. I have Die Hard, and many of the other films mentioned on DVD/download, but I probably wouldn’t go to the hassle of playing them – if they came on TV however, I’d be all over them. Plus, with TV you get instant notification via newsflash of any occurring disasters (alien invasions, giant lizard attacks) so you’ll be able to seek shelter whilst those watching DVD’s, will be slaughtered

cloud493

Using the ad breaks to make tea and go the bathroom. Memories.

Zubeneschamali

The ESB used to have to plan for huge spikes in power usage at the ad breaks in RTE's big christmas films when everyone ran out and stuck the kettle on.

I doubt they notice anymore.

johnny_ultimate

**** films on TV. Seriously. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most inferior ways of watching any film, bar maybe on a mobile device. Hell even then you wouldn't have to deal with ad breaks, edits, grave offenses against aspect ratios, SD and the other horrid norms of terrestrial TV broadcasts compared to other, superior formats. Not to mention the fact you have to put up with what the schedule dictates, and when - more often than not, it's inconvenient, and TV schedulers are not known as particularly imaginative or inventive curators.

If there is any social experience lost, it is a minor sacrifice to bear in the continued and deserved redundancy of terrestrial television as a cinematic delivery method. Even if you did get an excited 'Die Hard is on' text, you'd be better off sticking on your Blu-Ray or HD copy regardless - you can still indulge in the text message and watercooler discussion if you so wish, while sidestepping actually having to watch it in a vastly inferior manner. There are not many films I've seen a billion and one times, but even if there was I don't think stumbling across it on TV would make me instantly inclined to watch it again if I wasn't interested in rewatching it in the first place

I shall resist the temptation to expand on my belief that most even beloved Christmas movies are horse**** anyway :pac:

I apologise for the festive cynicism, but it has been a long time since I've sat down to watch to a film on TV. I feel little sadness about that fact.

Roar

^

he must be a South Pole elf....

podgemonster

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

**** films on TV. Seriously. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most inferior ways of watching any film, bar maybe on a mobile device. Hell even then you wouldn't have to deal with ad breaks, edits, grave offenses against aspect ratios, SD and the other horrid norms of terrestrial TV broadcasts compared to other, superior formats. Not to mention the fact you have to put up with what the schedule dictates, and when - more often than not, it's inconvenient, and TV schedulers are not known as particularly imaginative or inventive curators.

If there is any social experience lost, it is a minor sacrifice to bear in the continued and deserved redundancy of terrestrial television as a cinematic delivery method. Even if you did get an excited 'Die Hard is on' text, you'd be better off sticking on your Blu-Ray or HD copy regardless - you can still indulge in the text message and watercooler discussion if you so wish, while sidestepping actually having to watch it in a vastly inferior manner. There are not many films I've seen a billion and one times, but even if there was I don't think stumbling across it on TV would make me instantly inclined to watch it again if I wasn't interested in rewatching it in the first place

I shall resist the temptation to expand on my belief that most even beloved Christmas movies are horse**** anyway :pac:

I apologise for the festive cynicism, but it has been a long time since I've sat down to watch to a film on TV. I feel little sadness about that fact.

I take your point on censorship having watched American and Australian TV, it's awful and usually done crudely but thankfully I don't think it's as common with RTE and BBC.

I don't question that watching a film on Blue Ray/HD streaming would be a superior audio and visual experience. People wouldn't be buying them if they didn't and many of us do already have copies of these films for that reason alone.

But the movies we are talking about are ones we have already seen hundreds & hundreds of times and will continue to watch again. I could close my eyes right now and watch Die Hard, scene by scene in my own head, every line. To me it doesn't really matter if Mr. Takagi's brains hitting the boardroom glass doors are in HD or not. Whats on screen is only part of the experience, its about the memories they automatically evoke, the atmosphere of Christmas they create, its doesn't have to be analog or digital at this stage, its something we love and now associate this time of year with.

I think you have to look at the different ways people enjoy and watch movies during Christmas also. This isn't like the average Wednesday night, where you dime the lights, open a nice Merlot and enjoy a critically acclaimed Silent Ukrainian Film. Usually there is too much going on and too many people around to fully invest watching a movie and at the same time reach common ground with all the family on what DVD to watch (as one will hardly watch it alone, it being Christmas). This is more often then not resolved by just having the television on and enjoying what is being broadcast and I'd imagining looking at viewing figures this is happening in many other homes across the country.

I understand your argument but Terrestrial TV will never stop playing movies at Christmas (it's easy programming) but with this sky move the movies they will be showing now have gotten exponentially worse (Santa Clause 2).
And while the movies being played will have ad breaks and a lower quality picture, I still want what is broadcast to be a quality movie.

I apologise for the festive cheesiness

tunguska

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

If there is any social experience lost, it is a minor sacrifice to bear in the continued and deserved redundancy of terrestrial television as a cinematic delivery method. Even if you did get an excited 'Die Hard is on' text, you'd be better off sticking on your Blu-Ray or HD copy regardless - you can still indulge in the text message and watercooler discussion if you so wish, while sidestepping actually having to watch it in a vastly inferior manner. There are not many films I've seen a billion and one times, but even if there was I don't think stumbling across it on TV would make me instantly inclined to watch it again if I wasn't interested in rewatching it in the first place

I shall resist the temptation to expand on my belief that most even beloved Christmas movies are horse**** anyway :pac:

I apologise for the festive cynicism, but it has been a long time since I've sat down to watch to a film on TV. I feel little sadness about that fact.

Well aren't you just a big bag of fluffy cuddles.........