Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDon
You don't think it's at all unfair that Sky get to rake in £8m from the BBC, that's from license payers, every single year, and VM carry the channels for free? (and it wasn't that long ago that that fee was £85m when the BBC was using their CAS as well) I'm not saying that as a VM customer, I'm saying that as a license fee payer. Why should part of my license fee go towards providing a free to air channel on Sky? There is literally no justification why a public service broadcaster should have to cough up that sort of money to be carried on Sky. None at all (and incidentally the BBC also think that it should be sky paying the psb's), it's essentially profiteering from the BBC's universal service obligations.
Plus, I never stated it was unfair in it's entirety, or criticised Sky for it. I was just saying it's a reason why it's easier for a channel to launch on Sky than VM. You just give them the amount of money you're meant to give them, and bam, you're on the sky platform. It's a one size fits all system for any channel to launch on the platform, with VM every single channel launch is a lengthy negotiation, and whilst we don't know the details of the carriage contracts we do know it's not a nice easy simple process like Sky's due to the sheer amount of channels that seem to kick up a fuss about it with email campaigns to get VM to carry them. If VM had a price list with a take it or leave it approach to channel launches we wouldn't have the situation where channels want to launch on VM but seemingly can't come to any sort of agreement. |
Sorry but as things stand I cannot really see why the BBC in their ever so piviledged position should be treated any differently to say ITV. let's agree to disagree on that. They have not complained about it as far as I know.
Looking at it merely from a customer point of view the system of gaining access to the Sky and indeed Freesat platforms seems better to me. VM's way of allowing access to their network sounds awfully complicated, it certainly explains a few things regarding channel availability and the swapovers.
Anyway it was interesting to discuss it with you, it goes to show we all have different opinions which is always good.