Freesat launch 'delayed until autumn 2007'

[BGonaSTICK]

The BBC and ITV's planned free-to-view satellite TV service Freesat will not be launched before autumn 2007, according to media reports.

Director general Mark Thompson told MPs on the Culture Select Committee this week: "It's the issue of garnering broad support that's caused the delay." Negotiations with other broadcasters had been protracted due to efforts to fix a common standard, he continued.

Freesat will let people access all BBC and ITV channels via a satellite dish without paying a subscription. BBC chairman Michael Grade said the service, which will cater for the quarter of TV viewers who live outside the Freeview coverage area, would be "ready as soon as possible." Currently people who cannot receive Freeview or cable TV can only access BBC and ITV digital services via a satellite dish provided by Sky.

Source: Wotsat

[Jimdefruit]

Originally Posted by BGonaSTICK

........... Currently people who cannot receive Freeview or cable TV can only access BBC and ITV digital services via a satellite dish provided by Sky.

Source: Wotsat

Presumably Sky are putting about this misconception, or do the BBC and ITV really believe it as well.

[BGonaSTICK]

That's one of the main reasons why I started this site up

It makes me so angry that the (British, in this case) public are so bombarded by crap that they really do think that satellite IS Sky... I cannot wait for the day Freesat starts, as people will then start to question what's up there. I would love to see it launch on 19.2E, but there is no chance of that happening.

We have a huge job on our hands 'till then, and hopefully an even bigger one afterwards.

I don't want everyone to dump Sky. Sky is a reasonable service. Massively overpriced, but some good content. Someone needs to even up the PR score though. Bigtime.

Hopefully, I'll get some free time this winter to put a rocket under one of the spinoff projects: www.nosky.co.uk

Not quite sure what I want to do with that yet, so ideas on a postcard!

[diapason]

Well, that's very strange as I can access, I think, all BBC Channels from the Channel Islands, through Yorkshire, to Glasgow and up to Aberdeen, as well as all the ITV ones for free, using a dish and paying no subscription. I can get the local news from Bristol or anywhere else in the UK when London opt out, depending on which channel I have selected. My box has nothing to do with Sky and I receive wonderfully clear pictures. So I wonder if the planners realise that is possible already - or have I missed something? The only thing not always possible are subtitles - the decoder for subtitles is in my TV not my Fortec Box but there is only a problem with some subtitles on ITV channels.

[BGonaSTICK]

Yep. The key to this misconception (or maybe more correctly 'misrepresentation') is the 'supplied by Sky' bit.

'Freesat' boxes will also be 'special' boxes that are not supplied by Sky, but by the good people behind the Beeb and ITV collaboration, much like the 'Freeview' brand. What?

Nobody seems to know that you can just buy some kit and watch whatever's free-to-air.

Cut the crap. It's time to blow this charade away.

[diapason]

So will every BBC and ITV station be broadcast on duplicate frequencies when "Freesat" starts officially? They'll really clog up the satellites if that is the case - or maybe it's a marketing ploy and we'll use the frequencies which we're using already? In any event, I've just paid the BEEB £130 for the privilege of watching programmes made about 30 years ago when the licence fee was a great deal lower.

Mind you, you can't get "The Goons" on anything other than BBC Radio 7!!

[BGonaSTICK]

I assume it will just be a logical re-bundling of the existing FTA channels, plus some new ones (as in new to satellite, and FTA).

The thing is, that is will be an independent operation without (m)any conflicts of interests. The current situation with the BBC and ITV channels was, and still is, a bit of a mind-bending and contorted mess. The Freesat service will be a true competitor to Sky's 'Freesat from Sky'.

Confused?

Me too.

Well it can't be any more bizarre than Freeview, the existing Digital Terrestrial Television competitor to Sky, owned and run by the BBC, Crown Castle, and... err... Sky.

Doh!