Re: Question the Governors AGM 19th July - London

On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 09:18:30 GMT, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
<dab.is@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>It looks like they're going to start pushing Freesat this year or next.
>And if ITV, C4 and five can be persuaded to join and if, as I think
>they're going to, they launch HDTV on Freesat then Freesat is a better
>option than Freeview.

ITV, C4 and Five already broadcast for free on satelite. And they
always have. The free satellite option has been available for, what,
seven years, now?

If, alternatively, you mean whether the BBC can persuade ITV, C4 and
Five to join them in their unique folly of broadcasting Free To Air on
satellite, thus making their programmes available to all of Europe,
then that's not very likely at all.

While it's very much in the BBC's interests to flood the market with
cheap, low-specification equipment which cannot support any kind of
conditional access which could later be used against them in a charter
review, commercial broadcasters do not share the same priorities.

The BBC can waste millions on buying or sacrificing programme rights
just so that they can broadcast FTA across Europe, because they hope
that it will fence off any opportunity for Government or regulators to
use the possibility of encryption to make BBC services only available
to the people who WISH to pay for them. If the Beeb can say "No,
Minister, our services are viewed by millions of people who don't have
encryption in their set top boxes" then their cosy monopoly and
guaranteed income is assured.

Fine for the BBC. But what's in it for ITV, C4, or C5? What is the
benefit TO THEM of broadcasting completely in the clear, costing them
a fortune in European transmission rights, and causing them to lose
the ability to show some programmes or sporting events entirely? The
BBC can do it in the name of protecting their future, but the
commercial channels have no such requirement. For them, it would only
be a needless and expensive burden, for no benefit whatsoever.

.

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