Thread: Will NTL ever catch up with Sky?
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Old 06-12-2004, 17:46   #38
Tristan
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Re: Will NTL ever catch up with Sky?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil
But is it simply that Sky don't/won't offer it to the cable companies, or that the cable platform is not able/capable of delivering the full features of Sky Sports?



But if the cable platform is not physically capable of carrying an identical version of Sky Sports (including full red button interactivity/player cam etc), then even threatening Sky would have no impact as they would just say that the cable platform cannot physically offer the features that Digital Satellite can?
If the cable network weren't capable of offering it, that would be one thing. But all the Sky Sports Interactive things are really are hidden screens and the occasional graphical overlay, which the NTL software can deal with (see the BBC Wimbledon app for example).

I think the issue really is multiplex space. If NTL offer Sky another 8 high-bitrate streams (they need to be high to show sports well), then that's probably the same space as could be filled by perhaps 12 regular channels. NTL would expect Sky (not unreasonably) to pay the going rate for this bandwidth -- after all, Sky have to rent this space on the satellite to broadcast to their own subscribers, so why not rent it on NTL? But since Sky will get the same amount of money from NTL Sky Sports subscribers regardless of whether they provide the extra streams or not, they surprisingly choose not to give money to their biggest rival. So somebody has to force the issue here.
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