TiVo : BBC Red Button - will it arrive before the Olympics?

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by Chad

Why can't Virgin deliver what their customers deserve? Why are they only catering to 12% of their TV customer base? Virgin are hiding BBC content behind a paywall by insisting only TiVo customers can get access.

I think you will find that it's the BBC cuts that made this happen, which you have in no small part James Murdoch to thank with his anti BBC lobbing campaign. He has other things on his mind right now, the slimball.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:08 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

As l said the other day whoevers devises Virgin's ongoing strategy needs locking up and the keys thrown away because ever since the price rises were announced they have stumbled from one incompetent own goal to another and while they do that Sky sail away to the other side of the world laughing their heads off while Virgin are still stuck in dry dock.

That's only true if you don't know what's coming down the pipe.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by clinteastman

I think you will find that it's the BBC cuts that made this happen, which you have in no small part James Murdoch to thank with his anti BBC lobbing campaign. He has other things on his mind right now, the slimball.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:08 ----------



That's only true if you don't know what's coming down the pipe.

Well at present the pipe seems pretty blocked up and l am not sure when someone is going to come round to unblock it to reveal some seams of gold.

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by denphone

Well at present the pipe seems pretty blocked up

That is all the data that the Murdoch's are shoving down the pan

[Chad]

Originally Posted by batchain

That was when the BBC made it clear that the streams would only be made available online or via internet 'connected' devices such as TiVo so not possible on non-Tivo boxes. This is no longer the case so no reason to believe it will still be restricted to TiVo.

The Guardian is simply referencing older, possibly outdated, info. The BBC announced only today that it will now make its twenty-four live Olympic streams available to cable and satellite providers, on a non-exclusive basis.

Some good points.

I think I'll stop ranting and allow time for events to unfold. I'm sure Virgin will come good on this. I just can't see how M+, L and XL customers without TiVo, who pay substantial monthly subscriptions to Virgin, would be expected to be happy receiving the same coverage that's being served up on Freeview free of charge.

The following quote from the BBC website appears promising:

"Mr Mosey said the BBC had agreed with Sky and Freesat to show the live streams across 24 channels, with more announcements from other providers expected soon."

However further down in the article:

"However Mr Mosey added: "Not every platform will be able to accommodate such a huge technical offer, which amounts to 48 channels in total if you count 24 SD (Standard Definition) plus 24 HD."

Lets hope he is referring to platforms such as BT Vision etc...

I'm picturing SKY's summer add campaign already. The only place to watch Euro 2012, London 2012 and F1 in HD this summer. Take our HD package this summer and for a limited amount of time enjoy up to 84 HD channels!

I thought it was Virgin who were gunning for between 80 to 90 HD channels. I think, if you route around the internet, SKY will become the worlds biggest provider of linear HD channels this summer.

Let's hope that Usain Bolt can help Virgin "Keep Up" with SKY in terms of Olympic HD channels.

[pk1]

UPDATE: We've now heard from Virgin Media which has confirmed it will be offering all of its TiVo subscribers the 24 live HD streams through the new BBC Sport application we first wrote about at the end of last year. The app will be accessible through the proprietary BBC/TiVo Red Button service, and will aggregate all of the content so that it's selectable from the one place.

Found here http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/4514...24-hd-channels

[Rillington]

that's as we thought.

Does anyone know how many streams they will make available to those who will not pay extra for the Tivo box? As I said earlier, my best guess is the two streams which will be available to those with Freeview, and nothing more as they'll use this as another way to try to persuade people to get Tivo.

[BenMcr]

What will now be availale for V box customers hasn't yet been announced

[Rillington]

Thank you for that Ben.

---------- Post added at 20:16 ---------- Previous post was at 20:15 ----------

Incidentally, I wonder what Smallworld Cable will end up doing - ie will these 24 streams be available to Smallworld subscribers?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by pk1

UPDATE: We've now heard from Virgin Media which has confirmed it will be offering all of its TiVo subscribers the 24 live HD streams through the new BBC Sport application we first wrote about at the end of last year. The app will be accessible through the proprietary BBC/TiVo Red Button service, and will aggregate all of the content so that it's selectable from the one place.

Found here http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/4514...24-hd-channels

That's a massive slap in the face to 3,500,000 non-TiVo Virgin customers. So to sum it up then, as we stand just now:

All streams are free to all of SKY's 10,000,000 customers. Even people with an old dish without a subscription will get access.

All streams are free to Freesat's 2,000,000 customers.

Freeview will be offering the exact same content as Virgin customers who are on M+, L and XL without TiVo however Virgin customers, as we stand just now, will be paying a subscription to access the material where as Freeview is completely free to view.

Virgin customers who want to access all the streams, as we stand just now, will need at least the M+ package with TiVo costing £18.00 per month without the ability to record the streams. All streams will be made available to just 450,000 of Virgins television subscribers.

How can Virgin spin this to look like a good deal. The Olympics are huge, especially when they are hosted within our country, and have attracted some of the biggest TV audiences of all time.

Why would people think of joining Virgin, just for full access to the games when they can get it for free elsewhere. Even current Virgin customers, without TiVo, who are out of contract must surely see the value of going elsewhere for their Olympic fix.

For me Virgin are trying to push TiVo onto their customers way too hard.

[BenMcr]

You are making assumptions. There has been NO confirmation as to what V box customers will or will not get.

How about waiting for facts?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

What will now be availale for V box customers hasn't yet been announced

That would be interesting. If V box and V+ box customers get all 24 streams as linear channels then what really is the point and value of the app launching on TiVo? Surely TiVo customers would much rather all 24 linear channels launch on their platform too.

I've got TiVo and V+ and would much rather have linear channels on both.

[BenMcr]

For instance

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b87379a-7...#axzz1r0Vwuykj

It is very likely that Virgin will soon announce an agreement similar to Sky’s. On Tuesday a spokesperson from Virgin said the company was “very much in talks” with the BBC about broadcasting its Olympics coverage.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

For instance

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b87379a-7...#axzz1r0Vwuykj

But the problems is Ben that Virgin instead of leading always seem to be a hundred yards behind with regards to announcements and they need to get their fingers out and lead the race instead of trailing with the stragglers all the time.

[BenMcr]

Except by the looks of the FT announcement, Sky are coughing up for the BBC to provide the streams - because that's the only way to get them to Sky's customers

Up till now, the BBC have been fairly clear that the streams would be IPTV based only, so I reckon that is what Virgin have been preparing

So they have to be sure of what they can do with the streams before they can announce anything

[Chad]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

You are making assumptions. There has been NO confirmation as to what V box customers will or will not get.

How about waiting for facts?

Sorry I don't beleive I am making assumptions. My views and opinions were based on the information available in the link posted by PK1 and other sources today such as BBC News and SKY's website. I also used the term "as we stand just now" to portray that the post was based on the info currently available in the public domain.

I think my post is a fair assessment of how things currently look, until Virgin confirm to their non-TiVo customers otherwise.