[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

What nonsense you do talk! Every premium streamer has an ad-free option, which was my point back then. You could watch content free of ads, a position that remains true now, and I think always will be. I will not be proven wrong, and you cannot prove otherwise, so let’s wait and see.

This absolutely was not the unique selling point of streaming. Something as absurd as “you can pay a price premium to skip ads just as you can with a hard drive recorder” would have been so ridiculous it’d have been noted.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Not at all your favourite ‘straw man’ scenario. Your argument is based on viewer preferences, whereas I am saying that the broadcasters, not the viewers, will determine the position.

This is not how competitive markets work, OB. So long as rational consumers in the marketplace continue to use their eyeballs to watch television rational capitalists - ITV, Five, Sky - will have no reason to cannibalise their revenue streams to indulge your completely arbitrary date.

You forgot NOW. Yes, I am aware of them of course, but these are not typical streamers, and when Sky switch off their ‘linear’ channels, this will cease to be an issue.

The fact you perceive this is an “issue” at all is testament to the perverse prism through which you view the television market. The fact that other people, having no discernible effect on anything at all, can rationally consume television other than in the manner you prefer, leaves you incandescent with rage clutching at every straw from every blog going. Opining about everything from 5G to World War 3 just to switch off a broadcast mechanism millions of people - including subscribers to streaming services - consume on a regular basis despite time shifting and on demand being around for decades.

Now you are just being silly. One of the reasons put forward by the Beeb for BBC3 to go ‘online only’ was cost, do you not remember that?

And the reason they brought it back was nobody watched it!

That’s not one of your most intelligent answers to a response I have made to one of your idiotic questions, jfman. Clearly you have no answer, have you?

I was extremely pleased with that response, to be honest. Imagining things doesn’t bring them into existence by sheer will.

I know (at least according to your posts) that you use a number of streamers, which makes your hysterical responses even more perplexing. Clearly you understand the value of using streamers, but you steadfastly assert that people prefer TV channels and they would be somehow deprived without them! Priceless!

Another straw man. However you are correct in one narrow respect - the arbitrary and needless removal of digital terrestrial would deprive television services millions of households that either cannot get, or choose not to subscribe to, internet services capable of carrying streaming services.

The viewing preferences for the public as a whole are a matter of public record across linear, on demand, etc. through ratings and Ofcom surveys.

I understand the value of content in a technologically agnostic way, not that I expect rights holders would necessarily approve of me taking up services not targeted at the UK.

I don’t sit there and be a slave to whatever the Netflix window wants to promote to me because 20,000 or less people watched it in the UK in the last 7 days and make an assumption of quality on that basis.

---------- Post added at 21:28 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr K

There must be better causes in your life OB? How about supporting John Redwood in his hour of need , or saving the Panda, or Wokingham Town FC ? They need your support more than streaming TV .

I suspect he will be here well into the night calling for Ofcom to switch off TV masts despite millions of households using them. All to savour that dream of one day watching the premium sports content currently on Sky from an American streamer, at greater cost, on a 45 second delay with interactive betting adverts. Press red or green to bet 3 days subscription on who gets the next throw in. Then they’ll cut you off for the rest of the game once you get it wrong.