Originally Posted by muppetman11 (Post 35957807)

Doesn’t appeal to me really either but if Sky and Virgin continue to drop channels without reducing charges they’ll find many look to the cheaper streaming alternatives and continue with linear on Freeview or Freesat. Not everyone watches Sport.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957698)

The reason I say that is because some of the new channels are low value bargain basement type channels that won't get that many viewers.

Many wouldn't have appeared without VM needing quick replacements as they couldn't have afforded the carriage costs, so i'm sure that VM must have done them a deal that they couldn't have refused. I suspect that a short term contract will have been made for something like a year. They might even have agreed to carry some of the channels for free, given that they say that they have offered to carry the FTA UKTV channels for free, then, when the contracts expire they could ask them for the normal commercial rates, whilst knowing that some of them couldn't afford them. This would allow VM to say that it was the choice of the channel owners to leave the platform.

Horse & Country is a prime example as they had to come off Freesat because they couldn't afford the EPG fee.

Then, if VM don't feel that they need them anymore (especially if the UKTV channels return and some form of payment is agreed), they would most likely say something along the lines of them having such low viewer numbers that they have stopped carrying them to invest in better programming elsewhere blah blah.

There is also the fact that capacity is fast running out. Yes, they could increase capacity, but that would involve costs for new infrastructure. I think it more likely that they will follow the likes of Sky & Freeview and squeeze more channels into existing capacity. This would reduce the picture quality, so maybe this is the excuse that they will use to remove some of them??

I say some of them as I don't think that they will all be removed e.g. History HD, Paramount HD will probably stay.

I hope i'm wrong because different people like different things and more choice is always welcome, but this is what I suspect will happen.

Originally Posted by Raider999 (Post 35957815)

Agreed, however sky built their company on sports and in particular Premier Football.

You only have to look at the relative cost of having all sky sports channels against having all the movie channels to realise, like it or not, sports drives sky.

Similarly, BT chose to boost their to offering by getting into sports not movies.

Originally Posted by muppetman11 (Post 35957819)

I'm well aware of that and fully agree but my point to Mad Max was as follows.

With the removal of pay channels more people are likely to leave , the more who leave the costlier the subscription goes for those who remain.

As an example Virgin has agreed carriage costs with BT for its Sport channel , the more people leaving requires those remaining to pay more until it can renew it's agreement at contract end.

I'm not saying losing the UKTV channels alone will have a huge impact on Virgin but at the prices both Virgin and Sky now charge they have to be cautious.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957847)

Premier Sports cannot be counted as it's only a short term promotion to appease people.

IQTV is pathetic, why are Full House customers subsidising the £3.49 a month charge for 6 year old repeats of The Weakest Link? This type of thing is available on the linear channels anyway.

Paramount, Freesports, Your TV, Horse & Country are FTA and/or mostly repeats and the first three should have been added as a matter of course from when they first opened.

Vice has been a ratings disaster, with Sky withdrawing funding after the first year and their HD channel closing down. Their SD channel is now run by using their online content.

Love Nature is a channel that I've enjoyed on occasion.

To say that the UKTV dispute is supposed to be about lack of VOD, which of the new channels offer VOD at all?

The only future new channels i'm aware of are two more +1 channels.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957851)

I had pretty high hopes for Paramount, but it's clear to me that it's simply the same old shows being shown on a different channel in order to get their permitted minutage up for adverts. The fact that it's available in HD on VM is a plus for those that want to watch any of the programming though.

Not that Viacom are on their own in doing this, this is why ITVBe was created.

All those who have left or downgraded will have affected the projected income for VM, in particular it will have put pressure onto the business model of putting BT Sport into Full House.

Remaining customers will be expected to make up the shortfall, but there's one here who won't be.

Originally Posted by Chad (Post 35957853)

I'm very happy about the Premier Sports deal. It's allowed me to watch the Rangers game via my Dad's Virgin TV Go account. Now it's over to Burnley vs. Aberdeen on BT Sport. Can't beat free sport.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35957855)

And how exactly is UKTV any better?

I'm sorry, but I don't buy your assessment of the situation.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957857)

It's only available at no extra cost for another 6/7 weeks, but I don't blame you for using it whilst you can.

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I see no point in going over the same old ground over and over and over again.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957857)

It's only available at no extra cost for another 6/7 weeks, but I don't blame you for using it whilst you can.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957857)

It's only available at no extra cost for another 6/7 weeks, but I don't blame you for using it whilst you can.

---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:54 ----------

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957847)

Paramount, Freesports, Your TV, Horse & Country are FTA and/or mostly repeats...

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35957876)

BBC4 Scotland :confused: