Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu
I just wish there were MORE Cable companies out there as competition for VM.
When l was in America several years ago. There was 15 Cable Companies where l was. That's what Competition for you.
There was a brilliant Channel similar to Gold. Great oldies like The Rifleman, Beverley Hillbillies etc. Great stuff.
It would make me laugh IF, Sky created a Cable Company to take on VM
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I've said for decades that cable tech is and should be the best, but that competition is limited.
When the cable industry was being created, I lobbied the politicians very hard and told them that the way they were setting up the cable industry was wrong as all it did was create a cable monopoly in each area and there was no competition. They of course completely ignored me. Well, they did respond but their focus was on telephone competition against BT rather than cable tv.
Before Freeview came about, I lobbied the politicians again (I never learn...) to try and get them to implement a national fibre-to-the-home network with everyone getting a basic free tv service and very basic internet service via fibre. I pointed out to them that a aerial delivered service will always be limiting. Again, they ignored me.
I don't have a problem with there being just one cableco now, I have a problem that I cannot use the equipment I want and I cannot select from different providers using the cable as provided by VM.
As for America, they may have 15 or so cablecos at the moment, but it will shortly be dominated by just 2 or 3 cablecos, one of which I suspect will merge with VM/LG at some point in the near future.
---------- Post added at 23:05 ---------- Previous post was at 22:57 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by jj20x
Some of them are dross and sponsored/pseudo-shopping channels. Although the following would appeal to some. I doubt that they would have sufficient audience levels to justify investment in additional transport streams:
And the full bouquet of Sony channels and associated timeshifts? How many times do people need to watch endless repeats of The Waltons / Little House on the Prairie / Highway to Heaven / MASH / Touched by an Angel etc? If someone misses the start of a 40 odd year old movie, do they really need to watch it on the timeshift when it will be repeated in a few weeks anyway? If they haven't seen it in 40 odd years, what's another few weeks?
If VM invest in additional transport streams, we all end up paying the extra cost. Is that really justifiable for channels that will attract single figure audience levels? We've just seen threats of mass exodus from VM as a result of the announced price increase.
Also, space is at a premium. The channel bonding requirements of newer versions of DOCSIS is forcing new frequency assignments. Forcing the TV transport streams onto higher frequency UHF channels as DOCSIS moves onto the VHF channels. VM is made up of several different hybrid cable setups, not all are made equal and some are less responsive at higher frequencies than others. So, some regions will struggle to fit in multiple additional transport streams at these frequencies.
Sure, MPEG4 will help, when VM finally get around to converting broadcast streams to MPEG4. DVB-C2 would help more but would involve totally new infrastructure and STBs. It's not just a case of having limitless capacity to add channels nobody will watch.
The foreign language Worldbox apps seem to indicate that VM is moving in this direction. If these are a success, that could encourage them to widen the scope.
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The point is choice..... To choose
whether you want to watch something or not. You cannot make that choice, if its not even available.
+1 channels are VERY handy, but perhaps with new technology, it could be done differently. Ie, the way iplayer can go back 2 hours on a live tv stream.
The Waltons and Highway to Heaven may be old shows to you and I, but to others they are "new" shows. And they are good, much better than the reality crap everywhere now.
ANd on your shortlist, I would quite like the
choice of having Horse & Country available, probably Property tv too.