[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

If you want to put it that way, yes, but my prediction relates to existing channels. I’ve explained this before, but just to remind you:

Channels like BBC1, BBC 2, etc will disappear and instead content will be categorised by genre. Davie has said so. All the content will be under the corporate BBC brand.

Similarly all Sky channels will be under a general Sky banner (there may be a further division for Sky Sports).

I have never made an assumption that live programming won’t be available - that is just a twist that others have made. How would that ever make sense? Live programming will, of course, continue to exist and will be accessed in much the same way as existing PPV programming.

Your own contortions are the only “twist” here. Live sport doesn’t have to be broadcast on a linear channel at all, it can be a pop up stream within an app.

However what a linear channel offers is convenience. That’s why people consistently use them.

Yes. The nationwide gigabit-broadband rollout should be completed by 2025 under the government’s manifesto (recognise that date?). That target was revised to a minimum of 85% of premises by 2025. The Levelling Up White Paper published earlier this year published a new target - at least 99% by 2030.

Can you provide a link for the 99% claim? I have had a look and can only find “nationwide”. Forgive me for being pedantic but that doesn’t mean every premise, or even 99% of them. A percentage in every local authority, every constituency, etc. could meet the qualification while being below 99%.

Given the squeezes on the commercial sector with borrowing getting more expensive, and squeeze on public finances for those who buy into that, where is the investment going to come from? It’s not unreasonable to be sceptical given the scale of the task.

Add into that the take up of such services among an ever squeezed public at large.

I based my prediction on the ‘knowns’ at the time. It doesn’t require a genius to understand that if the ‘knowns’ become uncertain and then change, this will impact on the original prediction.

An entirely speculative post cannot be based upon “knowns”.

Nobody can predict the future with the kind of precision you seem to expect. Everything depends on the circumstances that make that prediction possible remaining appreciably the same.

Whatever happens now, I am quite pleased that we are well on the way to getting to where I said we would be, even if it takes slightly longer to get there through policy changes.

Some time after 2035 and a considerable time beyond 2025 , claiming linear over the internet as a win is quite a stretch, OB. I say that as an avid follower of your claims for 8 years now. (If of course even that happens).