Originally Posted by Tristan

Blimey, there's quite some bickering going on here, isn't there? But let's see if we can establish some common ground.

NTL should have launched a PVR service years ago. I don't think anyone -- even NTL themselves -- would disagree with this.

But NTL *do* have a PVR available in former Telewest areas, and they want to get it launched in former NTL areas as soon as possible (current estimate being early 2007). The specs for this box are very good, directly comparable to Sky Plus HD (it uses MPEG2 rather than MPEG4, although if done correctly this shouldn't make any difference to the viewer).

Sky have a larger number of HD channels available at this moment. There is no technical reason why these couldn't be shown on TVDrive, but will require carriage agreements to be in place. It's highly unlikely that Sky will offer a reasonable price for Sky Sports HD until they feel they've used it to establish themselves as the number one HD provider. I'll leave you to discuss the merits (and legality) of this.

NTL/Telewest have VOD available, whereas Sky do not. VOD has huge potential, although it is not currently being used as such -- witness the number of people on this forum who think it's just for viewing BBC programmes you've missed over the past week. There is no reason NTL couldn't offer a vast library of HD films for example -- there are already some on Telewest's VOD service -- along with entire series of HD shows (such as Lost and Desperate housewives, which are already on there). This means that cable definitely has the potential to offer more HD content, subject of course to agreements being made with the content owners.

(It's technically possible for Sky to offer VOD via ADSL, but it would require equipment to be installed in every exchange in the country. As such, a link-up with BT is more likely, but it's not for certain that the regulator would allow two such powerful companies to work together.)

Does that about cover it?