Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunslinger
OK, it's pushing the supermarket analogy at bit further, but in the examples you quote, customers still have a free choice where they buy the product itself. If say Tesco not only obtained the exclusive rights to sell Weetabix but then said, by the way if you want buy it you also have to get your entire year's (or week's) shopping here too, there would quite rightly be an outcry.
The problem is not Sky per se, who just do what they can get away with, it's exclusivity coupled with the enforced bundling of channels, which take away the ability of customers to pick and mix what they want to see.
|
We're really not all that far from agreement. Sky bundle channels just as VM does, just as BT does. In order to get the HD I want in XL I have to pay for a load of +1s and lifestyle channels I'll never watch. VM don't do this to me out of nastiness, they do it because if some channels were exposed to your 'pick any channel' model, would close to the detriment of their viewers. So we all cross-subsidise channels on Sky, VM, and YouView.
I think perhaps we're heading down a blind alley with the supermarket analogy but I do have the option of going to another supermarket to buy the special pack of Weetabix just as we all (well, most of us do) have the option of getting SA from Sky or Now TV, but I don't, I weigh up what I want and do my shopping in one place forgoing the delights of the 50 free offer. I don't then moan that Weetybangs limited or Tesco have been nasty to me, I just put it down to the normal way of things in all aspects of business. That's life.