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Sky to launch terrestrial service by Christmas 2007

Misc

Published: Tuesday 10th July, 2007 | Author: Willy Deeplung

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Non-satellite broadcast from the satellite broadcast guys

News has reached us of a new service coming from Sky… that doesn’t require a Sky satellite dish.

Yep, even though Sky is the name in satellite broadcasting, it'll be launching a digital terrestrial service in time for Christmas 2007, our source tells us.

Obviously Sky has realised how popular Freeview is and now want a piece of that market. But there is a kicker…

Sky’s terrestrial digital broadcast won’t be compatible with current Freeview decoders, which means a whole new set-top box. Happily, the signal will be picked up by your existing aerial if you already receive Freeview, you just won’t be able to watch any of it until you get yourself a Sky decoder box.

Included in the service will be some form of selective pay-per-view system, so we’re told, which allows customers to pick and choose programmes on a piecemeal basis, much like Sky’s existing pay-per-view. So the system will likely have some sort of phone link installed to enable payment and send new decoder instructions.

Why would Sky be launching a terrestrial broadcast system? Well, we can only speculate but perhaps Sky has seen a drop in viewers wanting basic packages without sports or movies and noticed that Freeview nicely fills that gap for those ‘lost’ viewers… perhaps this will be Sky’s ‘budget’ option?

One gap that you can be sure will be filled is the one left by Sky satellite decoder boxes as the new Sky terrestrial decoder takes its place. And just as we thought we were getting away from loads of separate bits of kit with everything becoming more integrated... Yep, all of you with built in Freeview in your TVs or PVR boxes, you'll need another decoder box too.

More on this bean as we get it.

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Posted by Funkstar - Tue 10th Jul 2007, 6:24pm

Read some speculation on this a few months back. The rumour included use of MPEG-4 for their channels. That doesn't look likely now though. Their pay channels will replace the three existing FTA channels - Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a62813/consultation-on-skys-dtt-pay-tv-proposals.htmlQuote

Posted by Nick - Tue 10th Jul 2007, 8:14pm

Well it looks like they got the go-ahead from Ofcom then cos the roll-out is expected for December, so we're told.Quote

Posted by ctid - Tue 10th Jul 2007, 9:16pm

Any chance of a Sky decoder CAM being released? I'd be interested in this but would want to use my Topfield with it.Quote

Posted by Nick - Tue 10th Jul 2007, 10:28pm

According to Willy's source, no.

I have a dual CAM slots in my Freeview TV and Willy told that this won't be compatible. It's a new box or no Sky.Quote

Posted by Funkstar - Wed 11th Jul 2007, 11:06am

Pure speculation this, but i wouldn't be surprised if the terrestrial sky boxes are essentially the same as the satellite ones. They are also going to want to sell you their own Sky+ boxes as opposed to you using a Humax or Topfield.

If they use the same encription as their satelite serivce, then it would be possible to use a third party CAM with the subscription card.Quote