The future of television

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Chris

No, it shows that a decision on reserving spectrum has been deferred.

I hope your right Chris... We dont wanna lose what we still have!! (Which isnt much )

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Chris

Are you minded to agree with the Scots Tory?

I thought it’d appeal to OB in a way I couldn’t.

I agree with all of the rest of your post. Plus of course those that don’t want/need internet connections at home.

I appreciate it’s a small number. But all of these small numbers add up to a business case for maintaining broadcast television as is in some form.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by Chris

Are you minded to agree with the Scots Tory?

He does have a point, and I think it is a far deeper problem that is not confined to the rural ‘not spots’. We often have 3 or 4 TV shows streaming at once in our house. No problem at all on our 900Mb fibre - which is why we eventually decided not to even bother having a dish installed on our new house and have stuck with accessing everything over IP - but an 80Mb FTTC line would struggle with that, if there was any local contention at all. Radio waves do not suffer contention no matter how many people in the street are receiving them. There is a reason why old fashioned, one-to-many broadcast systems are going nowhere fast. They are super resilient and they are going to be the only reliable way of receiving TV in multi-screen households for many years to come.

Yup, broadband that is good enough isn't available to enough homes let alone chosen by them.

And even then it's ridiculous how much resources are needed by something new to offer what old technology can do without breaking sweat.

Even when they do move on to new tech 5G Broadcast makes much more sense than a standard IP delivered solution. More efficient, because of the broadcast element.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Chris

Are you minded to agree with the Scots Tory?

He does have a point, and I think it is a far deeper problem that is not confined to the rural ‘not spots’. We often have 3 or 4 TV shows streaming at once in our house. No problem at all on our 900Mb fibre - which is why we eventually decided not to even bother having a dish installed on our new house and have stuck with accessing everything over IP - but an 80Mb FTTC line would struggle with that, if there was any local contention at all. Radio waves do not suffer contention no matter how many people in the street are receiving them. There is a reason why old fashioned, one-to-many broadcast systems are going nowhere fast. They are super resilient and they are going to be the only reliable way of receiving TV in multi-screen households for many years to come.

I think i"d still put up my satellite dish as a fall back if I were in your position.

I have to use the Internet when Virgin TV goes down and, whilst it is do-able, I find it to be a right faff.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

I think i"d still put up my satellite dish as a fall back if I were in your position.

I have to use the Internet when Virgin TV goes down and, whilst it is do-able, I find it to be a right faff.

It isn’t as quick as flipping channels but if you have a TV that handles apps well it is perfectly functional once you get used to it. We have a BT Halo internet connection so if the fibre goes down the 4G backup cuts in automatically. To the best of my knowledge that has never happened, although the fibre modem router and the 4G receiver are hiding under the stairs so I’d probably take a while to notice.

We have never really been multi-channel TV fans in our house and find everything we need on the main public service broadcasters, whose apps all give easy access to their broadcast stream, and the main streaming services.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Chris

It isn’t as quick as flipping channels but if you have a TV that handles apps well it is perfectly functional once you get used to it. We have a BT Halo internet connection so if the fibre goes down the 4G backup cuts in automatically. To the best of my knowledge that has never happened, although the fibre modem router and the 4G receiver are hiding under the stairs so I’d probably take a while to notice.

We have never really been multi-channel TV fans in our house and find everything we need on the main public service broadcasters, whose apps all give easy access to their broadcast stream, and the main streaming services.

If you have an aerial then the new Freeview Freely box might be an option to make things even easier.

If you aren't going to use your Freesat HD box then now would be a good time to sell it as the old SD boxes won't get any BBC channels from January & it's looking likely that Sky are intending to move their SD channels to S2 too, so I imagine that all the others will follow suit to cut costs, meaning that there will be a market for the remaining 2% who still have SD satellite boxes. Sky subscribers can get a free upgrade, but only vulnerable Freesat customers can get help with the cost

Former Sky subscribers, non vulnerable Freesat customers and those with generic satellite STB"s will shortly be on the lookout for an HD box if theirs is SD.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If you have an aerial then the new Freeview Freely box might be an option to make things even easier.

If you aren't going to use your Freesat HD box then now would be a good time to sell it as the old SD boxes won't get any BBC channels from January & it's looking likely that Sky are intending to move their SD channels to S2 too, so I imagine that all the others will follow suit to cut costs, meaning that there will be a market for the remaining 2% who still have SD satellite boxes. Sky subscribers can get a free upgrade, but only vulnerable Freesat customers can get help with the cost

Former Sky subscribers, non vulnerable Freesat customers and those with generic satellite STB"s will shortly be on the lookout for an HD box if theirs is SD.

There is neither a terrestrial aerial nor a satellite dish on our house - it’s a new build. The builder put a wall plate in the lounge and ran cables into the loft but getting an aerial and or dish was up to us. We had intended to do so, until we lived with super-fast IP service for a few weeks, then it didn’t seem so important anymore.