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[Black Sheep]

I would hope so. I have SKY TV and I wouldn't say they were cheap. Time will tell.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9992080/BT-and-BSkyB-go-to-war.html

[kitz]

>> Time will tell.

hmmmm indeed.

[burakkucat]

Some heads require cracking together, says b*cat (who has no interest in television). 

[UncleUB]

"Good for the consumer"........I wouldn't thinks so.

You don't need a broadband connection to watch Sky TV,you do to watch BT Vision + Isn't there a minimum speed required from your BB connection to watch it?

We have Sky(no movies or sports packages).We don't have the option of Virgin cable and our BB speed would struggle with BT vision..so from a consumer point of view we either pay for Sky or make do with the Freeview channels..
There are some good channels on Sky,National Geographic,History,Discovery etc,but for every good one there is at least 10 rubbish ones....This of course is just my opinion. 

Edit....Just as I thought

Sorry you can't get BT TV due to the speed of your broadband or an issue with your line 

 

Thank God for Digital Region.

[sheddyian]

I hope it's good for the consumer.  Most fights with Murdoch Monoliths don't usually end out well.

At the risk of taking this thread a bit off-topic, Freesat gives you a fair few channels without having to pay Sky anything, or you can do what I did a few years back, and fit a larger dish to a motor so it can be steered by the satellite receiver.

That way, rather than just receive the Sky/Freesat broadcasts (at 28.2 degrees East of South) you can get thousands and thousands of channels from 20 - 30 different satellites across the sky.

I get TV from many different European countries, and a bit further afield - Egypt, Saudi Arabia.  Of course much of it is in foreign language, but that in itself can be fascinating to a sheddy mind! 

Sometimes you can find English spoken films or TV programmes that simply have that particular country's subtitles added on for them - I've watched many an edition of Mythbusters in this way with, I think, Bulgarian subtitles!

Ian

[kitz]

Ive just noticed this slightly more recent report...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9992597/TV-price-war-looms-as-BT-BSkyB-talks-fail.html

TBH I really dont think the consumer will gain in the long term..  and I should think if the stalemate continues then sports fans are going to end up having to subscribe to both.   This will certainly hit the pub industry, many of the traditional type public houses who rely on matches to bring punters in.

BT sources claim it was willing to share its content with BSkyB, but that BSkyB was not willing to make it a two-way deal, handing BT some of its premium sports rights in return.

“Sky has refused to provide its content to others for many years now and so they have 'form’ when it comes to this issue. They are about as open to sharing as Ronaldo is to passing the ball when the goal is in sight,” a BT spokesman said.

IMHO I think Sky has held the monopoly on TV for too long and rapidly taking over the broadband market.  I dont like the track record that once they do have the monopoly then they charge wth they like.   I remember back in the 90's when they won the satellite war and became the only company left because they undercut everyone else..  and then how prices went Sky high (pun intended!)
Within just a couple of years subscription fees more than doubled and on top of that you still had to pay for premium channels, many of which had previously been included in packages.

It pretty well known that sky is managing to subsidise its broadband because of the huge profit it makes from TV..  so if they have less profit from TV, I can imagine that at some point dsl prices may have to be brought more in line.

[guest]

I can understand where Sky are coming from here - they are happy to run the BT adverts on every channel apart from the "Sports" channels, which are in direct competition. Note that you can only watch the "Sports" channels with a subscription, so this isn't generic advertising.

BT's cash cow is line rental these days - BB is no doubt the topping on the cake via revenues which flow from Openreach, but line rental is the cash cow for BT Retail.

See any Sky broadband adverts on the BT Retail site? No of course you don't and nor would you expect to - the fact there are no requirements on websites to take competitors adverts is neither here nor there, its just total lunacy to expect one company to advertise another in the same "product space".

BT are taking the proverbial and they know it. The rules they allege Sky "broke" were never intended for subscription-only channels but these days its fashionable to bash the Murdochs (no problem with that myself but BSkyB isn't run by them anymore) so BT will no doubt prevail.

As far as how the football stuff will affect Sky in general - IMHO they will find it very hard to increase prices on anything (TV, BB, Phone) in the next 2-3 years. Depending on how various corporate things work out that will likely mean an end to significant core network infrastructure upgrades within the next 18-24 months.

That of course hands the advantage back to BT - now you didn't really think BT's intention here was to become a broadcaster did you? All that was initially about was driving costs up for Sky. Now of course BT sees a double whammy due to Sky screwing up by underestimating FTTC backhaul/GEA and potential declining TV revenues.

As to whether its good for the consumer?

Absolutely not. Having the BT giant more profitable by cross-subsidising loss making activities/divisions at a corporate tax level is in no-one's interests except BT shareholders. Chinese walls only go so far and until I see an "Openreach plc" - ie a stand-alone company - then the generic "BT" is the elephant in the room. BT are playing it well though, they have the right (or should that be left?) people talking to govt/regulators while BSkyB aren't exactly flavour of the month, despite having booted the Murdochs off the board PDQ.

You pays your money etc....

Personally quite happy with Sky ADSL, not sure I'd go to Sky FTTC though.