Sky Agents in Ireland

LegacyUser

I visited the Merchant's Quay shopping centre in Cork earlier today, and Sky Digital had a new stand set up. They had blue balloons with the Sky Digital logo around the stand, and big 'official-looking' placards, which stated BBC1 and BBC now available, RTE1, RTE2,TV3 and All ITV channels coming soon.
No mention of C4 on the advertising, but what did they mean by 'all ITV channels'??
The Sky agent was from a company called 'Longsat', based in Wilton in Cork.
Do Sky authorise their agents to advertise like this?
I just asked the guy how business was going, and he said he couldn't keep up with the number of people filling out request forms all day.
I've mentioned this on the forum before, but the number of new minidishes popping up all around the place is staggering. At this rate, I'd imagine that Chorus' customer base is declining rapidly, rather than increasing quickly with the advent of their digital service. Most of Cork city still has not got digital, and many of the people there are getting Sky - they couldn't be bothered waiting any longer.

icdg

All ITV channels? You mean UTV, HTV Wales, HTV West, Anglia, Border England, Border Scotland, Carlton, Central, Westcountry, Meridian, Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, ScottishTV, GrampianTV, ITV-2, UTV-2, S2, GMTV-2, and ITV Sport Channel?

I would imagine that for ROI, it will be just UTV and possibly UTV-2 though. But unless this guy knows something we don't I doubt he can claim anything on ITV.

LegacyUser

i had my decoder installed on Thursday and the guy installing said that ITV, CH4 were coming in September and that RTE and TV3 were going to be starting shortly.

He said the same as I have heard everywhere, that he had done a huge amount of installs for people who where getting rid of Chorus. He was saying that for the bottom part of the country Chorus were doing ok re digital, but the Midlands they were having major problems and that it would be at least another six months before they started the digital service, if at all!

LegacyUser

SO,ITV and C4 will be joining in september! And RTÉ/TV3 will be joining soon! Where do these people get their info? I install Sky everyday and neither me nor my employer gets any of this "inside info" Maybe Dublin4 was correct in stating RTÉ and tv3 on Sky 28 May!

Goodness, I sense another spell of the ICDG forums heating up again! NICE! <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif" ALT=":D" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END-->

Will

LegacyUser

<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :eek --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/eek.gif" ALT=":eek" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/eek.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Only passing on what I've been told to the group <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :eek --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/eek.gif" ALT=":eek" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/eek.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END-->

LegacyUser

There were agents in Cork promoting the arrival of BBC/C4/C5 last year too, but it took until this March for it to actually happen.

As far as I'm concerned it's only a rumour from those who'd like to see them on the platform. The recent responses from RTÉ, TV3 and TG4 are worth noting. TV3 would like to, but it's too costly at the moment and too few of their viewers have SkyD. (It would guarantee a service in some areas like Mayo, but it's not worth that much of an investment.) RTÉ's priority is Digico and unless Sky fork out for the uplinks like they did for the BBC's rights, it is similarly unlikely to happen very soon, not least because no new licence fee monies have been approved as yet.

As for the other UK channels, UTV - I fully expect to be made available in Ireland as soon as ITV goes on the UK system (late this year, not any time during the summer) as they have a huge audience here on cable and terrestrial overspill and even go as far as widespread advertising in the south.

Last I heard on this, talks were ongoing with C4 and C5 (and the BBC for the other digital channels) and an outcome would be known in a few months. No word on a launch whatsoever. C4 does pick up much revenue from ROI through its NI regional advertising (much of which originates in the south), so there is a benefit to them for making the service available at some point.

None of C5's revenue comes from ROI, though there are a lot of viewers here on (at least one cable system and) analogue satellite. C5 consistently say that they have no plans, but I believe Sky have opened dialogue with them (as with C4) on the situation. There's certainly no incentive for C5 to become available here at the moment as it would mean increased programming rights costs. Unlike the other UK terrestrials, C5 was not around when the original cable redistribution agreements were signed.

LegacyUser

I wasn't digging at u BNC. I was referring to the installers and agents who originate the stories. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :O --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif" ALT=":O" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END-->
IMO, that's an informative post JC which puts everything into the correct perspective. Would really like to see UTV & C4 on skyIRL b4 winter.

Will

LegacyUser

No prob Irishblimp. Just felt like the messenger was being shot<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif" ALT=";)" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :lol --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif" ALT=":lol" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END-->
I see your busy on the THOic forums

LegacyUser

Aye have made a few posts on thoic alrite but the sky forum isn't very active!! DigitalSpy is a good forum (not as good as this one <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START --><img src="../www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif" ALT=":)" OLDREF="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> )