[monstermunch]

Originally Posted by mal4mac

I only want the five basic channels, and if the quality remains as good as it is at present I think £4 a month is quite reasonable.

That’s fair enough, of course, but Freeview can be accessed with a £15 set top box. Even when you factor in the cost of aerial installation (which isn’t always needed) two or three years at £4 a month would easily cover the cost. So in the long run Freeview and Freesat are cheaper, and they offer much more choice, interactive services and better picture quality.

Originally Posted by mal4mac

11 000 people using the service seems a reasonably high number, if Virgin are getting £44 000 a month that should (surely!) be enough to keep the basic service running.

That 11k figure is a moving target though and I suspect the churn will have ramped up quite considerably in the lead up to digital switch over. Every time one of those 11k customers buys a new TV, or a Freeview set top box, or Freesat, or Sky Satellite - VM lose a subscriber.

Also, I would not underestimate the cost of maintaining what is a very antiquated cable TV system. VM have to pay for the lease from BT, they also have to maintain their part of the network and often have to pay BT to make repairs or have BT engineers oversee work on the parts of the network where ownership is in dispute.

Originally Posted by mal4mac

Where do you get that 10 -15 year lifespan from? Are you including LCD TVs in that estimate? That should drag the average down I've known many people who've had CRTs longer than that.

We’re not a family who have to have the ‘latest and greatest’ and we bought our first remote control CRT in the mid 80s, it finally died in the mid 90s and we replaced it with a widescreen CRT. That began to give up about three years ago and we wanted to save space so we bought a digital flat screen. I honestly can’t think of anyone I know who still has a CRT, even my nan has a digital flat screen.

My other nan used to have a very old late 1970s CRT which lasted for about 25 years but in that time it had been repaired several times. I think the only reason she kept it was because she was familiar with the controls and in any case TVs are so cheap these days it’s often cheaper to buy a new one than have it repaired.

Originally Posted by mal4mac

The 11k out of 65k number might just as easily indicate that too many people are too easily swayed by modern trends, and by newness for the sake of newness, and by Murdoch's 'never mind the quality feel the width' approach.

I suspect it has more to do with Freeview and Freesat which have been heavily advertised in the lead up to digital switch over. Remember that in all other parts of the country you now need a digital TV or set top box, or you will do very soon. It’s only in Milton Keynes that analogue TV is being kept on temporary life support via analogue cable TV. The Government even pay for digital TV equipment and installation for elderly and vulnerable people. A little over ten years ago there were no roof top aerials or satellite dishes in the cabled areas of MK. Notice anything different nowadays?

I think most people are less influenced by the offerings of Sky/Murdoch (I’m no fan either btw), but rather they’re switching to Freeview and Freesat because there's lots of very good free to air content which isn’t available on the basic five channels, for instance, channels such as BBC THREE, BBC FOUR, E4 and Film4 etc.

Originally Posted by mal4mac

P.S. I wish VM would provide a better BBC radio 3 & 4 signal... if someone offered that I might change...

Get a Freeview set top box for around £15 and you also get access to digital radio channels - http://www.freeview.co.uk/Channels