Ntl May Drop Sky One/news!!!

The Gopher

Report on icdg says this anyway.And theyd be replaced by ITN and E4!!!I have skydigital and E4 and ITN are a load of ****e in comparison to sky one/news.Are ntl making all their decisions nowadays under a new customer satisfaction scheme that regulates that all decisions must be taken by board of management while on a crack cocaine trip?NTL are more out of touch with opinion than RTE and ITV combined!!!!!!

Charles Slane

Yes, NTL must be existing in some bizarre drug-fuelled haze if they don't realise that changing Sky One/News with E4/ITN would trigger a massive switch by subscribers from NTL to Sky Digital.

In fact may people (myself included) bought their first satellite system the last time that Sky One and MTV were taken off the NTL/Cablelink system.

They honestly don't seem to have the first clue as to how to attract subscribers. They've existed for so long in this country in a situation where they were the only ones allowed to deliver multi-channel TV, that they don't know how to compete. And by the time they learn, it will be too late to win back the thousands of subscribers who will have abandoned their second-rate service.

Rebel18

It would be a devestating blow to all irish ntl customers if ntl withdrew sky one and sky news.
They are good channels and if they are going to be replaced by half good channels then they will have lost the battle with sky.
Why dont they just include the 2 channels in the package already?

_Kaiser_

I thought I was seeing things when I read the title of this post!!!
If NTL go ahead with such a bizzare move they are surely putting the final nails into their own coffin!!

NTL are not in a position to challenge Sky on their channel offerings - 95% of what they intend to over on their new Digital service is available (and supplied to them) through Sky anyway. The only way they can complete (in my opinion) is by offering "other" services - Interactve shopping/banking etc, phone services, cable/high-speed internet access etc - basicaly services that Sky do not (currently!) offer here in the ROI.

But sure NTL...by all means go ahead and do this but I might check with any ex-Cablelink people you have there first so you'll get an idea of the reaction this is likely to provoke from your subscribers..in 1993, satellite was prohibitively expensive for a
lot of people - times are different now & I'm sure Sky will be MORE than happy to step in in your place.

Mossy Monk

let's face it, Sky News for Irish viewers is nothing but complete and utter bollox. nothing but British news, Sky One on the other hand...BIG MISTAKE for NTL to drop this

Marconi

The reasons that ntl are considering dropping Sky One & Sky News is not easy to comprehend but they may also be coming under some political and commercial pressure to drop these stations after Murdoch launched his new "Irish" versions. The commercials which they broadcast are aimed at an Irish audience and it's obvious that this is eating into the profits of TV3 and the revenues of RTE and TG4. Also, I guess ntl don't want to be perceived as being just an extension of Sky Digital - perhaps they want to be seen to be offering more (or less)?!

Let's face it, Sky One is full of repeats of the Simpsons, Star Trek and other inferior American programmes - generally aimed at people with rather low I.Q's!

Sky News is mostly British news and we get enough of that on BBC and ITV. Remember how they treated Ireland during the Foot & Mouth crisis? How often do you watch Sky News for more that 10 minutes at one go? The only bit of Irish on it is that weather girl and the Ryanair.com logo!

JDxtra

Fair point about the advertising, but TV3 and RTE should be able to cope with a little competition! What the hell do they want - a monopoly on TV advertising between them!

The fact that Sky One doesn't appeal to you soesn't matter - Cablelink / NTL viewers have had this channel for over 10 years (apart from the time they dropped it for a while) and it is VERY popular. You can't just take it away when it's been part of the basic package for so long. They are just asking for uproar. And replacing it with E4 isn't such a good idea - this channel doesn't even start until mid-afternoon!

Sky News is a heck of a lot more Irish than the ITN News Channel!

Balfa

um, marconi, if you think simpsons is only for people with a low IQ, then all i can say is that you're REALLY stupid.

DMC

They wont get rid of it, because of the public backlash.
But I want BBC News 24 or BBC World in it's place NTL do it!

Richard

Originally posted by DamoDMC
They wont get rid of it, because of the public backlash.
But I want BBC News 24 or BBC World in it's place NTL do it!

That would be handy. I think the former is fairly likely - it is the only encrypted news channel over on the SkyDigital platform. I know there is the issue of sports clips inm the news, but Sky News seem to manage this. Hopefully any additional costs of being FTA willbe outweighed by the cost-saving by not using encryption. Even if for the ROI it didn't appear in the EPG at least it'd be there.

Actually there is probably a better chance of the other BBC Channels appearing on ntl in Ireland as Sky don't like the BBC's extra channels so would be less likely to respond to Irish public pressure from them than ntl would. Or do NTL have a thing about them as well?

"The reasons that ntl are considering dropping Sky One & Sky News is not easy to comprehend but they may also be coming under some political and commercial pressure to drop these stations after Murdoch launched his new "Irish" versions. The commercials which they broadcast are aimed at an Irish audience and it's obvious that this is eating into the profits of TV3 and the revenues of RTE and TG4. Also, I guess ntl don't want to be perceived as being just an extension of Sky Digital - perhaps they want to be seen to be offering more (or less)?! "

"Let's face it, Sky One is full of repeats of the Simpsons, Star Trek and other inferior American programmes - generally aimed at people with rather low I.Q's! "

In reply to the first quote:
Marconi , I entirely agree-Take a look at the adds on the English version of Sky news...
mainly Adds for " no foal no fee" solicitors/old age pension house mortgages and stuff sponsoring kids in Malawi.
Contrast this with the advertising on the Irish version-Every aspect of Irish business is there-Now Irish advertisers are not Stupid-obviously Sky news in Ireland must have a decent audience and therefore is an outlet for Irish add revenue- a painfull one at that for the Irish broadcasting companies.

Offering A news service such as Sky does is an "establishment issue" for Sky-It also is something to do with the fact that IMO they would probably see it as adding major "presige" value to their Organisation.The sheer expense involved in operating so many outside broadcast units/journalists/Foreign bureoux etc must be collossal( and has to be subsidised by them)-the cost of a primetime short irish opt out probably wouldn't be seen in all that.
However if RTE plan to mimic Sky news with their own Irish version as they do and even put an "Irish equivalent" of the cash Sky put into theirs- We may all keep very friendly with the loan committee of our local credit union , so we can keep up with the Licence increases. Unless of course the demise of Sky One/News on NTL could bolster up their revenue..........???

Regarding quote two above ( on Sky One) -no comment
mm

Richard

Don't forget that that Sky News do an australian opts-out as part of "Sky News Australia". It takes the UK version during the Ozzie night. Australia has a population of only a few times higher than ROI's. 10 million is it? that's only three times higher. They could certainly do a few opts--out during the day.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Originally posted by DamoDMC
They wont get rid of it, because of the public backlash.
But I want BBC News 24 or BBC World in it's place NTL do it!

I've BBC World and it's nothing to get worked up about. It's BBC 1 with old programs and a bit more news.

Wouldn't mind BBC News 24 though and some of the new ITV Channels.

Richard

BBC WORLD isn't much like BBC ONE at all. It is more like News 24. True, it does show some old BBC ONE shows, mostly at the weekend, but that's it.

cableskeptic

Originally posted by Marconi
The reasons that ntl are considering dropping Sky One & Sky News is not easy to comprehend but they may also be coming under some political and commercial pressure to drop these stations after Murdoch launched his new "Irish" versions.

I would think that ntl are considering this because of the exorbitant cost of Sky content. I would doubt that ntl are coming under any commercial or political pressure?

People criticise ntl and Chorus for increasing their rates but Sky and the BBC are increasing their content charges as well so expect more rate increases from ntl and Chorus in the near future.

As Marconi says ntl could potentially replace Sky News with ITN or BBC (or both); replace Sky Sports with ITV Sports and all the Sky Movies packages could be replaced by Film Four (I subscribe to this and I think it is excellent - I watch about 5 or 6 good quality movies a month and very rarely have to rent a vide or DVD from the video store). This would work for me.

_Kaiser_

As Marconi says ntl could potentially replace Sky News with ITN or BBC (or both); replace Sky Sports with ITV Sports and all the Sky Movies packages could be replaced by Film Four (I subscribe to this and I think it is excellent - I watch about 5 or 6 good quality movies a month and very rarely have to rent a vide or DVD from the video store). This would work for me.

The problem with the Film Four idea is that it is designed as a "specialist" movie channel and as such the content would really prevent it from being used as a acceptable substitute for Sky's offerings (which - and I'm trying NOT to sound like the ad here - do offer something for everyone).

Sky Sports with ITV Sports - again not really viable as ITV Sport's main selling point is 1st Division soccer...everyone I know (rightly or wrongly) would rather watch the Premiership (and Golf, Cricket, Tennis etc that Sky has the exclusive rights to).

Sky News - I don't know if you've seen ITN's offering or not but it's not in Sky's class at all. I can't comment on News 24 as, as we all know, its not yet available seperately in ROI and I'm not staying up late enough just for that.

Sky One - Although there are several things that annoy me about this channel (ad breaks 5 minutes into a show for example) it IS the only place to watch new episodes of most of the popular shows...E4 isn't even on all day (yet) and like C4 & Film Four before it, is really more of an "alternative" channel (tho admittedly not to the same degree as C4 was/is) so again, I can't see this an a replacement.

Like them or loathe them, it's true that Sky do currently offer the best all-round selection available...if NTL really DO decide to drop these channels then they really are comitting business suicide. The better option would be to add the aforemetioned channels to their offering and focus on services Sky DON'T offer (cable modem access, Interactive shopping, banking for ROI etc) rather than trying to force customer's to make a choice that - in the end - I have no doubt will prove to be a costly one for them.

Anyway, these are just MY opinions...I'm sure many out there will disagree, but that's what keeps the Forum interesting

"I would think that ntl are considering this because of the exorbitant cost of Sky content. I would doubt that ntl are coming under any commercial or political pressure? "

Cableskeptic- you are weaning me off the consiracy theories!
I would actually think that it' s totally inconceivable that a large international organisation like NTL would succumb to any non commercial pressure-Its even more inconceivable that there would be any in the first place.

Oh here I go again.....It of course in skys interests to charge other platforms ever increasing amounts for their popular services,thereby affecting their rivals potential competitiveness.
mm