Sky Remove Fair Use Policy From Max Broadband

Originally Posted by Gary L

With the credit crunch we are in now people will think about saving money more than they did before. you have to look at the price you are paying for what you have at the moment and compare it to what is available at the moment.
a lot of people want to hammer their connections without being told they will be punished if they do. SKY will not be punishing this group of people.
some people might even go for SKY's offer because of the way that SKY will market it.

a lot of people might just want to leave Virgin for having STM and SKY doesn't have anything at all.

Considering you hate Virgin Media why aint you left Gary?

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by darthlinux

Considering you hate Virgin Media why aint you left Gary?

I'm a masochist with a Smart car.

ok you wanna type that in english this time

[Fatec]

Originally Posted by darthlinux

ok you wanna type that in english this time

*Someone who takes pleasure from recieving pain, who has a nice car.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by TraxData2

*Someone who takes pleasure from recieving pain, who has a nice car.

Exactly. don't know which part of it confused him so much

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

its funny people see sky as poor because of monopoly tendencies but consider their tv service is superior to VM's

Err no!It's because Sky have the monopoly of more money to outbid for the successful programs from under the noses of their competitors and they do this by charging more for the product..So my sister who loves cricket (strange woman) can never see England play because she can't afford Sky's prices as an OAP.

Originally Posted by Gary L

Exactly. don't know which part of it confused him so much

Its been a long day and I have moaning customers is my ear may have been you gary lol

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Err no!It's because Sky have the monopoly of more money to outbid for the successful programs from under the noses of their competitors and they do this by charging more for the product..So my sister who loves cricket (strange woman) can never see England play because she can't afford Sky's prices as an OAP.

Umm all those programs were until the spat last year available to Virgin Media customers, and Sky Sports is available to any broadcaster that wants it as it's part of the rate card?

Have you used Sky recently? It's great, it does cool stuff like not taking ages to change channels and has a fast and responsive EPG, you can actually surf the channels without spending about 3 weeks over it. Red button works and is fast doing it, how cool is that?

Virgin's EPG is atrocious, Virgin's STB software is atrocious, you can see where Virgin have been multiplexing streams to cram as much as possible onto the network as picture quality on various channels is noticeably poorer, and I am looking forward to getting back to Sky. About the only thing I'll even consider missing from VM TV is VoD and even that was substandard with pixellation on various programmes and subtitles missing on BBCi.

Anyway that's my opinion, along with my explanation why. Virgin's TV is a poor relation to Sky in every way apart from having VoD in my opinion. Nothing at all to do with cost or where the cricket, which is also available on VMTV, is broadcast. If people didn't pay the prices Sky wouldn't charge them, so while your friend might not be able to afford them, which is unfortunate, clearly on the whole the product does sell at those prices.

EDIT: Incidentally Sky don't even decide what they charge Virgin Media, et al, for Sky Sports and Sky Movies, Ofcom do. Perhaps you should complain to them about the prices.

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

Umm all those programs were until the spat last year available to Virgin Media customers, and Sky Sports is available to any broadcaster that wants it as it's part of the rate card?

Have you used Sky recently? It's great, it does cool stuff like not taking ages to change channels and has a fast and responsive EPG, you can actually surf the channels without spending about 3 weeks over it. Red button works and is fast doing it, how cool is that?

Virgin's EPG is atrocious, Virgin's STB software is atrocious, you can see where Virgin have been multiplexing streams to cram as much as possible onto the network as picture quality on various channels is noticeably poorer, and I am looking forward to getting back to Sky. About the only thing I'll even consider missing from VM TV is VoD and even that was substandard with pixellation on various programmes and subtitles missing on BBCi.

Anyway that's my opinion, along with my explanation why. Virgin's TV is a poor relation to Sky in every way apart from having VoD in my opinion. Nothing at all to do with cost or where the cricket, which is also available on VMTV, is broadcast. If people didn't pay the prices Sky wouldn't charge them, so while your friend might not be able to afford them, which is unfortunate, clearly on the whole the product does sell at those prices.

EDIT: Incidentally Sky don't even decide what they charge Virgin Media, et al, for Sky Sports and Sky Movies, Ofcom do. Perhaps you should complain to them about the prices.

My 'friend' is my sister and our beef as is everyone elses that the supporters of the English cricket team that can't afford to pay Sky's prices were cheated by the system that originally allowed English Cricket to be shown on the available 'FREE' channels until Sky outbid the BBC and others for the rights...This is the danger of a monopoly.

Anyway why would my sister complain to VM?They are not available in Newcastle. It's Sky for the cricket or it's no one.

[Ignitionnet]

No-one held a gun to the ECB's head and told them to sell to Sky, they chose to sell to them to make maximum profit.

Is it worth mentioning that the BBC didn't even bid for the TV rights?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ortsrights.bbc

"The BBC is astonished at the comments from the ECB," said a spokeswoman for BBC Sport.

"We have always said that any bid for live test cricket is subject to value for money and ability to schedule. In our view neither of these criteria were met," she added.

"We have consistently argued that not having cricket as a listed event puts it out of reach of all terrestrial broadcasters. This is the ECB's choice and they are entitled to it. It is absurd to blame the BBC for this outcome."

Also VM are available in Newcastle, or parts of it anyway, ex-Telewest.

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

No-one held a gun to the ECB's head and told them to sell to Sky, they chose to sell to them to make maximum profit.

Is it worth mentioning that the BBC didn't even bid for the TV rights?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ortsrights.bbc



Also VM are available in Newcastle, or parts of it anyway, ex-Telewest.

Well obviously not for my sister who would love to be able to have cable broadband...

[Ignitionnet]

Quite.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by TraxData2

Now all we need is UKO to swap over to annex a (which is happening sometime in the future, i believe) and then sky...Make VM look crap (like it is), let the good times roll

I guess you mean annex M

yeah I agree ukonline will have it in a matter of time, possibly followed by sky.

---------- Post added at 15:11 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

The response is predictably laughable.

Actually the entire article is laughable.

heh I wonder whos payroll this guy is on.

A leading expert in UK broadband has told Techradar that he feels Sky's claim of being the first major 'unlimited' package provider is rhetoric.

"Obviously we welcome any removal of small print, but there is still one 'get out of jail card' among all the public relations rhetoric," said Michael Phillips of BroadbandChoices.co.uk.

"Sky still says that any excessive behaviour – and they give the example of someone using his account to send spam mail – could lead to them being suspended from the network.

"So there is still something in place to protect the network. I think all the ISPs are playing semantics here with the 'unlimited' claims.

"I don't feel that Sky are offering anything more than the likes of Be or O2 have been offering for a while now."

Suspended for sending spam is nothing to do with bandwidth limits thats just internet abuse. He picked out the names of BE and O2 who havent enforced FUP's but he fails to mention BT,VM and a a few other isps do enforce FUP's and so sky is different, of course sky is the only isp to not have a FUP alongside its unlimited so this expert is not such an expert at all.

---------- Post added at 15:16 ---------- Previous post was at 15:11 ----------

Originally Posted by foreverwar

How can it be unlimited, if it has an upper limit on the speed?

it can when the speed is defined.

unlimited up to 8meg for example means unlimited except for the speed.

unlimited subject to FUP technically is the same but many isps have the FUP hidden and in small print, alongside undisclosed traffic shaping. Far more worse.

The difference between them is on the former, you can have the line worked 24/7 with no consequence, the latter the isp on its end throttles you back and may send you a heavy use letter breaching a hidden FUP limit.

[Fatec]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I guess you mean annex M

Oops, i should of corrected that

yeah I agree ukonline will have it in a matter of time, possibly followed by sky.

From what i know they are trialing it, though not all areas currently support it.

Must ask Dan how it's coming along

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Err no!It's because Sky have the monopoly of more money to outbid for the successful programs from under the noses of their competitors and they do this by charging more for the product..So my sister who loves cricket (strange woman) can never see England play because she can't afford Sky's prices as an OAP.

Everytime I have rang sky saying I have to downgrade due to financial reasons they discount my bill, they are understanding in that respect. I dont ring every month doing that as would be abusive only if I genuinly need to make the cutback, the discounts tend to last 3-6 months tho. End of the day it is a commercial product sky have the right to charge what they wish, sky's tv service is better overall (exception signal during extreme weather), me as a customer dont care how they get there just the fact its better. Of course sky invest billions into their tv programming, I expect many times more than VM's budget. Meanwhile good old ntl/VM who refuse to invest upgrading my analogue area to digital, charge more for less channels that have no interactivity.