Quote:
Originally Posted by demented
I doubt Sky feel remotely threatened by Cable. Whilst cable has said "three or four" HD channels are coming Sky have added another 2. By the time cable add theirs (if they add them) Sky may have added another 1 or 2 so there would be parity. Cable more than ever need this new samsung out box out pronto and a bit cheaper than the £150.
I would say Chris is correct, that Sky are more threatened by freesat (and in a year or twos time, freeview). Sometime in the summer/autumn ITV HD will become a proper channel. Sometime in the not so distant future C4 will appear on freesat. When that happens people flogging freesat will be able to say three HD channels for free, that's a really big deal. Sky are pre-empting this, luring people in who will then be tied into 12 month contracts, when the contract runs out some of them may well stay with sky. It makes good business sense to try and flood the market 6 months before freesat HD content increases and a year or so before freeview HD gets bedded down.
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Further to the above, it seems Freesat is claiming total sales of 200,000 units during 2008, half of which were in the final quarter (Sept-Dec). 100,000 Freesat boxes in time for Christmas, and right in the middle of all the high street doom and gloom, is not small beer.
They aren't giving a breakdown by brand of box, or how many SD and HD boxes were sold, but Freesat claims 61% of its customer panel cited HD as their primary reason for purchasing. I think it's fair to assume therefore that
at least 61,000 Freesat-HD boxes were sold in the run up to last Christmas.
If you want an explanation for Sky slashing the price of its own HD box, I'm sure this is the answer.
Info from
http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051526