VOD : Netflix/Streaming Services

Originally Posted by jfman

Easy enough for everyone to buy a freeview box, and digital switchover still took 15 years.

It's going to be a PR disaster if streaming is 'standard' yet arbitrarily starts telling everyone they need new hardware to continue viewing.

Moreover, digital switchover couldn’t even begin until there existed a free digital terrestrial service that was widely understood to be free. OnDigital and then ITV Digital failed because they looked like just another subscription service and created the impression that it wasn’t possible to get into digital TV if your interests went no further than freely available public service broadcasters.

It wasn’t until the BBC took the lead in rebranding digital terrestrial TV as Freeview that set top box sales began to climb to levels where analogue broadcast switch-off dates could be proposed.

There is a large constituency of TV viewers in the UK who aren’t interested in paying for TV and won’t buy any hardware that’s not essential. They’re never going to buy a fire stick, a Roku, Britbox or Now TV.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

You've been saying this for some considerable time and all that seems to move is the date by which your hypothesised Utopia arises.

The date - 2035 - has not changed. Only in your own imagination.

---------- Post added at 16:47 ---------- Previous post was at 16:40 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Moreover, digital switchover couldn’t even begin until there existed a free digital terrestrial service that was widely understood to be free. OnDigital and then ITV Digital failed because they looked like just another subscription service and created the impression that it wasn’t possible to get into digital TV if your interests went no further than freely available public service broadcasters.

It wasn’t until the BBC took the lead in rebranding digital terrestrial TV as Freeview that set top box sales began to climb to levels where analogue broadcast switch-off dates could be proposed.

There is a large constituency of TV viewers in the UK who aren’t interested in paying for TV and won’t buy any hardware that’s not essential. They’re never going to buy a fire stick, a Roku, Britbox or Now TV.

Yes, true in a large part. But in the next decade, there won't be so many people left who don't have a connected TV, so they will be able to access the BBC i-Player, All4, ITV Hub and My 5 or their successors. The government only has to make it a mandatory requirement for TV manufacturers to offer these basic streaming facilities to make this work.

My thought on this is there will be just the one service available for this purpose - Britbox UK with ads.If we no longer have TV channels, the i-Player and hubs will disappear.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The date - 2035 - has not changed. Only in your own imagination.

You got your date wrong as it was 2025.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The date - 2035 - has not changed. Only in your own imagination.

You had Amazon blowing Sky out the water at the last auction, did you not?

Certainly you fell for the reports, presumably leaked by the League to drive up prices, that Amazon were expressing a high level of interest. I wouldn't describe not bidding more than the publicly available 2016-19 bids as a high level of interest, but each to their own.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...82&postcount=9

[denphone]

Originally Posted by jfman

You had Amazon blowing Sky out the water at the last auction, did you not?

Certainly you fell for the reports, presumably leaked by the League to drive up prices, that Amazon were expressing a high level of interest. I wouldn't describe not bidding more than the publicly available 2016-19 bids as a high level of interest, but each to their own.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...82&postcount=9

Even my decrepit memory can remember that...

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The government only has to make it a mandatory requirement for TV manufacturers to offer these basic streaming facilities to make this work.

So now we need Government intervention to deliver streaming only solutions by 2035? Well, at least you are recognising that the market isn't the answer. Why would worldwide television manufacturers want to develop software solutions for every single TV market in the world as preferable to offering tried and tested DVB-T tuners and some software solutions in market where this is desirable.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by denphone

You got your date wrong as it was 2025.

Once again, and as I explained earlier, 2025 related to broadband coverage, not the demise of scheduled linear channels. Do wake up, Den.

---------- Post added at 16:54 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

You had Amazon blowing Sky out the water at the last auction, did you not?

Certainly you fell for the reports, presumably leaked by the League to drive up prices, that Amazon were expressing a high level of interest. I wouldn't describe not bidding more than the publicly available 2016-19 bids as a high level of interest, but each to their own.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...82&postcount=9

I said this round or the next round. Accordingly, it is too early to come to the conclusion you have made.

Amazon's high level of interest would have prompted them to bid for the 'bargain basement rights' to test it out.

---------- Post added at 16:57 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

So now we need Government intervention to deliver streaming only solutions by 2035? Well, at least you are recognising that the market isn't the answer. Why would worldwide television manufacturers want to develop software solutions for every single TV market in the world as preferable to offering tried and tested DVB-T tuners and some software solutions in market where this is desirable.

To keep their streaming services up to date. Nothing wrong with that.

[denphone]

Just like a clever obfuscating politician the story changes on a daily basis....

[jfman]

There's everything wrong with mandating to television manufacturers that they have to continue to support apps that are ten years old on hardware that is ten years old when there's no commercial incentive for them to do so.

They won't want to do it and actually it'd be virtually unenforceable. Are we going to start a trade war with TV manufacturers?

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by denphone

Just like a clever obfuscating politician the story changes on a daily basis....

What’s changed?

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:08 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

There's everything wrong with mandating to television manufacturers that they have to continue to support apps that are ten years old on hardware that is ten years old when there's no commercial incentive for them to do so.

They won't want to do it and actually it'd be virtually unenforceable. Are we going to start a trade war with TV manufacturers?

Now I know that this is all a big wind-up on your part. If it’s the law, they have to comply.

Maybe they will set a timeline on it. After all, if your TV or washing machine stops working then it stops working and you have to get another one. I’m not clear on why you think this is any different.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Now I know that this is all a big wind-up on your part. If it’s the law, they have to comply.

Maybe they will set a timeline on it. After all, if your TV or washing machine stops working then it stops working and you have to get another one. I’m not clear on why you think this is any different.

A law has to be enforceable to ensure compliance. Do people exceed the speed limit? Do people illegally stream television? Of course. Yet these are illegal.

So if a retailer, such as Amazon, is shipping televisions from abroad will we ban them from entering the UK unless there's a guarantee the software will be maintained for ten years?

Add into the mix I'm sure the nations that are major manufacturers of televisions wouldn't particularly like this kind of rule for one small country. It'd never get through trade negotiations.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

A law has to be enforceable to ensure compliance. Do people exceed the speed limit? Do people illegally stream television? Of course. Yet these are illegal.

So if a retailer, such as Amazon, is shipping televisions from abroad will we ban them from entering the UK unless there's a guarantee the software will be maintained for ten years?

Add into the mix I'm sure the nations that are major manufacturers of televisions wouldn't particularly like this kind of rule for one small country. It'd never get through trade negotiations.

A sensible government requirement might be that if one of the designated apps fails to work within, say, ten years, then the manufacturer would have to replace the TV. Hardly onerous.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

A sensible government requirement might be that if one of the designated apps fails to work within, say, ten years, then the manufacturer would have to replace the TV. Hardly onerous.

Far from sensible that's frankly ludicrous - and simply not going to happen in any way shape or form.

The ability to compel a manufacturer, presumably based abroad as we don't make anything in this country, to adhere to such an arbitrary requirement simply does not exist. The retailer perhaps, but they are just a middleman so why should they suffer?

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

But in the next decade, there won't be so many people left who don't have a connected TV, so they will be able to access the BBC i-Player, All4, ITV Hub and My 5 or their successors.

I have a connected TV. It's a 2014 model. When I got it, it supported iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube. None of these work any more. This could get quite costly (if I was bothered about streaming; luckily I'm not)

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

I have a connected TV. It's a 2014 model. When I got it, it supported iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube. None of these work any more. This could get quite costly (if I was bothered about streaming; luckily I'm not)

I think it would be reasonable to take the view that if the streaming services advertised as being on there break after five years, the item was not fit for purpose.

I don’t think consumers should have to put up with this.

---------- Post added at 17:53 ---------- Previous post was at 17:51 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

Far from sensible that's frankly ludicrous - and simply not going to happen in any way shape or form.

The ability to compel a manufacturer, presumably based abroad as we don't make anything in this country, to adhere to such an arbitrary requirement simply does not exist. The retailer perhaps, but they are just a middleman so why should they suffer?

Arbitrary requirement? Come off it! I could see you being well pleased if any expensive device you bought stopped working within five years!

Any trade deal will cover standards expected of manufactured goods. This is no different.