No Picnic for Sky

[SAT-WORLD]

It seems that Ofcom has scuppered any chance of BSkyB launching its long-awaited ‘Picnic’ premium digital-terrestrial MPEG4 service.
Ofcom has announced it will be holding a fresh consultation on the pay-TV market, and this seems to have forced Sky to place on hold its plans to launch its Picnic service this summer. Picnic was originally expected to supply a handful of channels including sport and movies to DTT viewers, although new MPEG4 boxes would have been needed to view the channels.

A pre-autumn launch for Picnic was considered vital if Sky were to have any chance of winning soccer fans ahead of the start of the upcoming 2008-2009 football season.

Picnic was announced more than a year ago. Ofcom’s statement on May 13 said that extra consideration was needed alongside the wide market investigation now being undertaken. “In the consultation, Ofcom recognised that there are issues raised by the Sky/NGW proposal that will inform the market investigation and vice versa," Ofcom said.

It is still possible that Sky will launch an IPTV-based service, bypassing for the moment the broadcast option.

Source:Rapid Tv News

[merlodlliw]

Originally Posted by SAT-WORLD

It seems that Ofcom has scuppered any chance of BSkyB launching its long-awaited ‘Picnic’ premium digital-terrestrial MPEG4 service.
Ofcom has announced it will be holding a fresh consultation on the pay-TV market, and this seems to have forced Sky to place on hold its plans to launch its Picnic service this summer. Picnic was originally expected to supply a handful of channels including sport and movies to DTT viewers, although new MPEG4 boxes would have been needed to view the channels.

A pre-autumn launch for Picnic was considered vital if Sky were to have any chance of winning soccer fans ahead of the start of the upcoming 2008-2009 football season.

Picnic was announced more than a year ago. Ofcom’s statement on May 13 said that extra consideration was needed alongside the wide market investigation now being undertaken. “In the consultation, Ofcom recognised that there are issues raised by the Sky/NGW proposal that will inform the market investigation and vice versa," Ofcom said.

It is still possible that Sky will launch an IPTV-based service, bypassing for the moment the broadcast option.

Source:Rapid Tv News

Good news, enough pay tv out there,hope ofcom has the balls to say no to Skys choc bar.

Bob