Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

It doesn't look as if Sky is as guarded over its exclusive rights to HD anymore, hopefully, they have just signed a deal giving seven of their HD channels to a German cable company, including among others Sky Sports HD....could this mean VM have a chance of getting them or is that just a pipe dream?
Or could these be the six or seven HD channels Berkett has been talking about for so long.

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2009/...y-hd-channels/

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!!
 

I don't think Virgin are after the Sky HD channels just yet, they probably thought that Sky wouldn't sell for any price or a really high price. Anyway with the Ofcom ruling and this piece of news, hopefully we can get some Sky HD channels - of course this will take a lengthly amount of time.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!!
 

No doubt Sky will already have there Lawyers lined up for all of the legal challenges the will be submitting. I think Sky will stretch it out for a good few years yet.

Lets face it the devil will be ice skating around hell before we see SKY linear HD on VM

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!!
 

I think sirius is right about a lengthy legal process.
Ive more hope of a deal connected with virging selling thier channels to sky and that being some sort of lever to get decent pricing from sky for hd.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

at the end of the day SKY have HD and VM have VOD. If Sky give up there best assets to direct competition which could give them the better service it could be business suicide. As it stands at present they have level playing field as far as what makes each service attractive above the other .
This is why I have both Sky for HD and VM for VOD if in the future VM get HD and can supply it effectively I will drop Sky as would a lot of others. On topic it all ties up that this German company as far as I can see is not in direct competition so Sky are not potentially cutting their own throat.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Sky Deutschland like Sky Italia are nothing to do with BSkyB in the UK.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Not a big deal this. Its a different country if they sold them to someone in the UK then it would be one.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Who are they?
This is an interaction between two German companies. Nothing to do with Sky in the UK, and nothing to do with Virgin Media and its lack of HD.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Err not true.

Sky Deutschland is now 30% owned by News Corp (Murdoch's company), hence the change of name from Premier earlier this month. Sky Italia has been run by News Corp since 2005.

There has been widespread speculation in the media that Murdoch is trying to setup a European wide Sky organisation but he has always denied it.

That said, the HD channels in question - ceartainly the Sport and Movie channels, may have the same names but carry different programming than their UK namesakes.

Sky Deutschland is not exactly doing brilliantly with large financial losses and a drop in the number of subscribers. Maybe this is a way of generating extra income from subscrptions (through cable) and increasing advertising revenue by adding extra viewers?

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Erm what bit was wrong?
Sky Deutschland has nothing to do with BSkyB. They may be PART owned by NewsCorp but the two companies are independent. The news that Sky Deutschland is going to let a german cable company access some of its HD channels has nothing whatsoever to do with BSkyB.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Sorry but the fact that Sky Deutschland is part owned by the same company as BSkyB and Sky Italia is completely owned by the same company as BSkyB does mean they have "something to do" with BSkyB in my book, the common Sky branding being the most obvious.

But, like I said, the HD channels in question are not the UK ones as other posters seemed to have assumed and therefore it has little or no meaning to us VM subscribers at the moment.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Are Virgin Media missing a trick here?

They could easily broadcast Living,Living 2,Bravo,Bravo 2,Virgin 1 and Challenge TV in HD,since its there own channels and whatsmore, they could be exclusive to Virgin TV!

Also, since Virgin Media still own 50% of UKTV, they could easily do the same to Watch,Dave,Davejavu,Alibi,G.O.L.D,YEsterday,Home,R eally and Eden.

Virgin Media could also pay exclusive rights to broadcast these channels in HD too,although I think they will be charged a lot of money to begin:

Channel 4
ITV
CNN
Film 4
Eurosport
Star plus
Zee TV
TV5
Discovery including Animal planet,Science,Turbo and Travel&Living

Including BBC, thats about the same amount of HD channels as Sky,although as I said above most of the above will be exclusive to Virgin TV and Smallworld TV.

Also, I know it might sound crazy,but it might be worth adding content from the above mentioned channels onto Virgin TV VoD service too. Even crazier,it might be worth paying Sky to add On-demand content including Catch Up TV from Sky 1,Sky 2,Sky 3,Sky News,Sky RealLives,Sky RealLives 2,Sky Arts 1,Sky Arts 2 and Disney Channels.

For those who subscribe to Sky Movies, have on-demand movies also Sky Sports for those who subscribe to Sky Sports channels.

Its highly unlikely,although what about if customers offered to pay a higher fee? Its all about giving the customer what they want, so I think that if Virgin Media can't afford Sky on demand, then customers should be able to pay a premium if they wanted.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

No - they are not missing a trick as Virgin DO plan to expand the number of HD channels for the above channels

However it is only worth doing IF you can source enough HD content and the viewership is appropriate.

There is no way either C4 or ITV would allow Virgin to be sole broadcast of the HD content - C4 because it is a public broadcast so wouldn't be allowed, ITV because they couldn't afford it!

C4HD could be broadcast of VM if they wanted now - I personally don't why it isn't

ITV HD isn't a proper licenced channel yet - which is why it is hidden under the red button on Freesat. If ITV do pay to turn in linear I'm sure it will turn up on both Sky and VM

As for channels like Zee TV and TV5 I doubt much of their content is in HD to begin with.

Yes it is crazy because you can't just pay to do that, the broadcaster has to agree - and as it stands Sky aren't going to do that, especially as they have plans to launch a broadband connected STB.

Again not going happen with the Sky channels until OFCOM step in

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

In the same way that Virgin Media and Virgin Atlantic are related. Branson owns bits of both. I wonder how much sway Virgin Atlantic have with cable TV? :rolleyes:

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Did I say that BSkyB have any say in how Sky Deutschland or Sky Italia are run? No. I merely picked up on the fact that you said

As I have I pointed out, they are all majority owned by the same company and so obviously are connected. News Corp / Rupert Murdoch do have a say in how all three companies are run and it's no coincidence that they all provide TV services using the same "Sky" name and logo's.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

As companies go they have nothing to do with each other. The fact that Sky Deutschland have released HD channels to a German cable company has no bearing whatsoever on BSkyB. Its that simple.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

This is why l get so angry about the HD situation with VM, Sky have sold HD to a German company, but VM don't go after these channels from Sky, and it is no good people saying that, VM will go after Sky channels in the future, that is not good enough, VM should have the best HD channels out there, so that should include Sky Sports, why haven't VM gone after ITVHD, l think they are clueless, VM customers deserve the best, and that is what they should get.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

This is why I get so angry about people that either can't read or lack basic comprehension skills.

I'll break it down real easy for people.

This has NOTHING to do with Sky UK.

Sky DEUTSCHLAND, the GERMAN Satelite broadcaster, have sold THEIR HD channels to a rival tv platform.

These channels ARE NOT the channels we get in the UK, and have NOTHING to do with Sky in the UK.

Different company, different channels, different market.

This has precisely nothing to do with any HD channels that are available in the UK.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

I agree it has no bearing - but, they do have something to do with each other. You say neither, I say neither, we'll have to agree to disagree on that part.

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

Out of interest, do HD simulcasts need to be licenced? I thought that only the channel which it's simulcasting with needs to be.

Sam

Re: Sky sell HD channels to German cable company!
 

ITV are reaping the benefits of a previous boss who decided HD was a passing fad, he decided that unlike the BBC and others they wouldn't start a library of HD programs. Hence they have nothing to show.