Sky signals the end of the satellite dish

rolion

So,the famous sky dish 60cm or 80 cm in size will be gone in few years !
I still reckon the quality of the satellite cannot be beaten by the quality of a broadband contended connection...

more H E R E
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42815603

PS

One thing that i canot get of my mind is why a picture of almost naked young and beautiful woman is been used as a promo for a business technologicla news !? I wonder if that actor will complain that is been used as a target !? Or, not as it hels promoting the ... hook ?

muffler

Link not working

Gerry Wicklow

Also covered here

Schorpio

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Also covered here

It does probably merit its own thread though.

The satellite dish is going nowhere fast. Broadband infrastructure is rubbish outside urban centers.

Even is Sky manages to do away with dishes (eventually), Freesat will have to remain in it's current format as that's the only way to reach parts of rural Britain. Even if rural Britain managed complete fibre coverage, freesat would STILL need dishes as the only method of staying truly free (and not shackled to a communications provider).

Harry Palmr

Hilarious optimism from SKY I think. If you were to replicate what SKY Q boxes are capable of how much bandwidth would you need?

It would also bring into focus the cost of internet access here - Sky charge plenty but they do at least throw in the captial cost of the box and dish set up. A monthly internet fee of say 50 euro PLUS the cost of a Sky package is going to be not cheap.

Former Former

They're not actually signalling the end of the satellite dish. This offering if/when it comes along will be in addition to the satellite service, rather than replacing it.

dashoonage

Ya my 3mb wireless broadband says go way and leave my sky dish alone .

lertsnim

Would this service include FTA channels on the EPG or only subscription channels?

irishgeo

rolion wrote: »

So,the famous sky dish 60cm or 80 cm in size will be gone in few years !
I still reckon the quality of the satellite cannot be beaten by the quality of a broadband contended connection...

more H E R E

PS

One thing that i canot get of my mind is why a picture of almost naked young and beautiful woman is been used as a promo for a business technologicla news !? I wonder if that actor will complain that is been used as a target !? Or, not as it hels promoting the ... hook ?

HD on sky isnt true hd its watered down due to a lack of bandwidth on the astra satelite. even the bbc had to water it down when they wanted to put all the regional channels up.

UHD is coming from satellite as its too much data.

Tigerandahalf

I wonder how long will Sky offer their services over the dish.
The one problem for Sky is that they don't have any fibre infrastructure and thus are vulnerable to the wholesaler putting up costs and making their product less attractive.

Have they fibre infrastructure in the uk?

Hasn't there been talk of them doing a deal with Siro here?
They are still very reliant here on piggy backing on open eir or virgin.

Schorpio

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I wonder how long will Sky offer their services over the dish.
The one problem for Sky is that they don't have any fibre infrastructure and thus are vulnerable to the wholesaler putting up costs and making their product less attractive.

Have they fibre infrastructure in the uk?

Hasn't there been talk of them doing a deal with Siro here?
There are still very reliant here on piggy backing on open eir or virgin.

They don't have their own fibre network, no. They use BT Openreach's. Everone does bar Virgin, much the same as here.

Tigerandahalf

Ya one of the problems in the future with tv over fibre is that companies will try to tie down sports rights with their broadband. Just like what we have seen with eir and BT Sports.

You could sign an 18 month deal with a broadband provider because they have a certain sport and 2 months later a new contract for the sport could be signed with a different provider.

It means that people might have to switch broadband provider every 2 or 3 years.

It would be bad news for many if Virgin secured exclusive rights to BT sports in Ireland when the next deal comes up.

If Vodafone or others compete similarly you will be left hoping that the winner provides broadband in your area.

Unless we see a netflix type scenario emerge.

Capt'n Midnight

Sky send out a box and every Virgin customer could potentially remove TV from their bundle. If they price this aggressively it could be a game changer.


The Virgin customers who are upset by constant price rise are a bigger market than the remaining rural customers who are likely to subscribe. in Ireland anyone who wants Pay TV already has it, but there's no shortage of those who want it for less.

Remember Eir and Siro are rolling out FTTH too.


Sky aren't pulling the plug on dishes , they are adding a new delivery mechanism. Saorview just doesn't have the bandwidth to compete.

As an aside a Sky satellite box may still receive FTA without a contract, but I doubt an IP TV would.

Harry Palmr

In the medium term it'll be interesting to see what the effect on FTA would be esp the Freesat platform.

The Cush

This will only be an option for Sky broadband customers for now, for everyone else on fibre broadband with other providers this will eat into 1Tb monthly FUP very quickly.

Capt'n Midnight

Harry Palmr wrote: »

In the medium term it'll be interesting to see what the effect on FTA would be esp the Freesat platform.

I can't see it having any effect.

Anyone with Freesat has already rejected the option of paying SKY.

Anyone in the UK with decent broadband can already access a lot of TV content via the players.


Until SKY stop paying for transmitters it will have no effect on the economics of FTA satellite.



BTW: Hard drives still have a lot of growth. 30TB drives are on the roadmap. So there is plenty of growth potential in recordings even in 4K.

Third_Echelon

I moved to the US a few years ago and just went with the best cable option at the time (Comcast/Xfinity - part of NBC Universal). After the first year of the nice offer, my broadband and TV package was costing me $175 per month. It was a regular enough TV package too.

Recently got sick of that and 'cut the chord'. Kept my broadband with them which is decent, 200 MB and signed up for Playstation Vue. Got all the stations that we regularly watch and saving about $50 per month. Only did this about a month ago, so have to see how it is long-term, but so far, very happy with PS Vue service. HD picture is good. Just going to keep an eye on broadband usage to see how much it consumes.

Tigerandahalf

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I can't see it having any effect.

Anyone with Freesat has already rejected the option of paying SKY.

Anyone in the UK with decent broadband can already access a lot of TV content via the players.


Until SKY stop paying for transmitters it will have no effect on the economics of FTA satellite.



BTW: Hard drives still have a lot of growth. 30TB drives are on the roadmap. So there is plenty of growth potential in recordings even in 4K.

That is something I was wondering about. Is there a big cost in transmitting over satellite and would Sky save a lot by phasing that out.

In 10/20 years if the majority of their customers were receiving pay tv via broadband (urban users) would it be worth their while pulling the plug on satellite.

Saying the above the chances of the majority of urban dwellers being on gigabit fibre in that time could be small.

I thought Freesat had been given permission to have pay tv on their platform. I wonder is it streaming apps or over the satellite?

Del2005

I hope it's better than their NowTV offering, I got a free trial and couldn't watch any live TV.

Schorpio

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Sky send out a box and every Virgin customer could potentially remove TV from their bundle. If they price this aggressively it could be a game changer.

The Virgin customers who are upset by constant price rise are a bigger market than the remaining rural customers who are likely to subscribe. in Ireland anyone who wants Pay TV already has it, but there's no shortage of those who want it for less.

Remember Eir and Siro are rolling out FTTH too.

Sky aren't pulling the plug on dishes , they are adding a new delivery mechanism. Saorview just doesn't have the bandwidth to compete.

As an aside a Sky satellite box may still receive FTA without a contract, but I doubt an IP TV would.

I dunno, I think it's a particularly niche market, at least for the moment. Right now, the only subscribers would be those who already have access to fibre, can't put up a dish, and for some reason really want Sky over any other provider. I'm thinking maybe listed buildings in cities?

Outside of those who are prevented from putting up a dish, there isn't much of a market for this. As you say, most people who want Pay TV probably already have it. Maybe it's a long term cost saving strategy? All new customers will be encouraged to take broadband and not have a dish?

Virgin customers who want to switch probably already do have the choice between both Sky (albeit not over IPTV) and Eir.

I agree though, I don't think Sky will pull the plug on the dish anytime soon.

Interestingly, I remember when Sky's whole USP was that they could give you perfect quality TV no matter where you were, thanks to the magic of the satellite dish! Oh how times have changed!!

Capt'n Midnight

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

That is something I was wondering about. Is there a big cost in transmitting over satellite and would Sky save a lot by phasing that out.
...

I thought Freesat had been given permission to have pay tv on their platform. I wonder is it streaming apps or over the satellite?

Lets be very clear on this. SKY don't own the satellites, SES SA do. So they have no control over Freesat using them.

A satellite only costs $300m and lasts for a decade or two. Thanks to electric rocket motors costs to get to GEO have halved in recent years.
Saorsat costs about €1.5m a year.

SKY have deep pockets , so satellite costs aren't a biggie. Here's how much they are paying for one league in one sport in one country. Italian SKY viewers would probably be more interested in Serie A or basketball or even watching paint dry.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/sky-bt-seen-facing-english-soccer-rights-price-near-8-billion

The total price for the three-year domestic rights to the Premier League is set to reach 5.6 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) to 5.9 billion pounds,

ED E

Am I correct in saying Q does not currently use the OR/OE multicast products?

The Cush

CAI's Senior Executive, Tim Jenks on BBC Radio 5's Wake Up to Money programme discussing Sky plans to go dish-free.

"Not all of us have got the speed of broadband that will enable us to watch their programmes if they went solely via a cable network"

Tim Jenks, Confederation of Ariel Industries on Sky planning to do away with the satellite dish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09nvpcn (starts at 22:40)

FRIENDO

I'm sure this is very possible. I have tried Now TV live channels and they worked perfect. Also a live event on box office.
My Internet speed is up to15m

However live RTE player picture quality is shocking bad.

Tigerandahalf

FRIENDO wrote: »

I'm sure this is very possible. I have tried Now TV live channels and they worked perfect. Also a live event on box office.
My Internet speed is up to15m

However live RTE player picture quality is shocking bad.

It is possible that the rte player adjusts its transmission rate depending on your broadband speed.
Saying that the picture quality isn't great on it but I do have it over wifi.

Hugh Jampton

Del2005 wrote: »

I hope it's better than their NowTV offering, I got a free trial and couldn't watch any live TV.

Unless it has the BBC, I have zero interest in NowTV in the Republic.

icdg

It doesn’t even have the BBC in the U.K., save that there’s an iPlayer app (for U.K. customers). The idea is that the type of person taking Now TV will be using it as a supplement to Freeview or Freesat. TV players aside it’s a strictly pay TV proposition. I’m not sure any Sky via IPTV service will be any different incidentally.

Jurgen Klopp

Except they've said they won't be getting rid of dishes, it's an alternative option depending on location and residential situation.

It's a handy way to get customers in apartment blocks and those "superior housing estates" and the likes where the owners are awkward about dishes

It's surprising they haven't been trying this with the last few years given the competition offers it.

If they got rid of dish completely be come craic to see how many customers would be lost between here and the UK outside cities and large towns. We're only doing a rural fibre rollout in this country and its "up to 30MB" so thats 10 on a good day

Plus if ya have excellent broadband, there's "free alternatives" that are costing more sky cancellations than anything else alongside cheap options like Netflix and the likes