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Old 25-10-2020, 23:01   #449
RichardCoulter
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Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris View Post
They are owned by BBC Studios, which is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. That means it is entirely funded by the revenue it generates. Profits may subsidise the licence fee, but the licence fee may not be used to subsidise BBC Studios. While the strategy does now appear to be full FTA broadcast, the fact it is ultimately owned by the BBC is no guarantee of that in this case.

In the case of Freesat particularly, many channels have legacy contracts with Sky guaranteeing they will only be distributed with Sky encryption on the Sky EPG. In the past, this has allowed Dave to go FTA on Freeview years before getting into the Freesat EPG.
They might as well add them (and Drama +1 too) as it would enhance the platform that the BBC co own and increase ad reach. Now that Freesat has moved into making a profit, a huge chunk of the EPG fees paid for these three channels would probably be returned to the BBC as extra profit!

A deal was signed between Sky & UKTV in October 2013, so I think you're right about either Sky (or NDS encryption) contracts needing to be fulfilled before these channels could go FTA.

Last edited by RichardCoulter; 25-10-2020 at 23:07.
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