A very good question for all - If you started your own channel...

[Arthurgray50@blu]

This is just an idea, BUT if YOU had the money to start up a new tv station to take on SKY, VM, BT VISION etc.

What would you have on it, we know that Sky has a great deal of channels plus extras.

But what would would you have on it, and this is a genuine question.

Subscription telly is driven by the three Fs ... actually, that may no longer be the case, the interwebs being what they are these days.

So, if you want to whip Sky's corporate ass, you need to steal the two most important Fs, namely Films and Football.

Anyone with sufficiently deep pockets could torpedo Sky any time the Premiership rights come up for renegotiation. This is why the price for those rights is so high, even at a time of deep recession. Sky has to fork out by the billion, because if it doesn't, Sky is in vast trouble.

You can forget your Sky Atlantics and wall-to-wall Simpsons. None of it matters a hill of beans if they don't continue to control the broadcast of live Premiership football in the UK.

So, to answer your question, if I was contemplating starting up a new TV distribution operation (which I suspect is what you mean, rather than just a 'station'), then I'd first be checking to see whether I could get my hands on about five billion quid in time for the next round of football rights. And if I couldn't do that, I wouldn't bother.