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Originally Posted by jtwn
Great post Tristan. What i wonder though is, with ntl's policy of keeping ownership of all equipment, when they come to give out pvrs, surely they are going to make people pay for them, with the costs the boxes will incurr - surely more so than the samsungs.
If they do charge a 'rental' for the box, within time, they are going to break even on the cost, and begin to profit - and you are going to pay more...how do peeps think it will work out..give both options of buying or renting the PVR?
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I would be amazed if they sell the boxes rather than renting them -- the latter has always been the standard model with cable. There will almost certainly be a monthly fee to pay for the box -- I wouldn't be surprised if it was £10pm, the same as Sky Plus -- plus a hefty installation fee to try and claw back some of the initial cost. There might also be a requirement to be on the top TV package (i.e. Family on NTL, Supreme on Telewest), but I'd imagine that most people going for a PVR would be on the top package anyway, so it would be no big deal.
Currently with Sky Plus, there is a large installation fee combined with a £10pm fee for the PVR features. This charge is waived if both the full Sky Sports and Sky Movies are taken. After 12 months, the box becomes yours (as does the cost of any repairs), but if you stop paying the extra £10 (or subscribing to all Sports and Movies) you lose all the PVR features, and are left with just a standard Sky digibox.
Therefore there are only two real differences between the outline above and what is currently done for Sky Plus. The first is that after 12 months, ownership and responsibility for maintenance of the box changes. This is exactly the same situation as with "standard" digital services on cable and satellite, and so will not be a major issue. The second is that Sky waive the PVR charge if you take Sky Sports and Sky Movies. As the cablecos make no money on the Sky packages, there is no incentive for them to offer the same deal. (Indeed, it's yet more evidence of Sky using there broadcasting power to try and buy platform market share -- something which the regulator should stamp down on hard -- but that's another story.) What would be very interesting is if and when VOD subscription packages are launched, as was mooted a couple of years ago.
And just to add a bit more into the mix, all the above assumes that the Telewest PVR and Sky Plus are equal. This is not the case -- the cable version is more in line with what a future HD-enabled Sky Plus box would look like. Such a box would naturally cost Sky more, and Sky Plus users would expect to pay a further premium for its facilities.
It's all still open!!