Ofcom Discussion

(05-10-2014 18:38 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  Are we on the brink now of SKY as we know it changing very soon.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/marke...ahead.html

Maybe this is the reason for Ed's sudden departure announcement knowing that the return of all these German channels making it's way onto our EPG could be just around the corner

Our babechannels would have to up their game to compete with The German Babestation.
I might have to start learning German.

Block if you have a look at my uploads in the other channels section part of the forum you will see my recent uploads from Babestation24 which is the German equivalent and let me tell you it's nothing special to write home about. Certainly on a good night they put ours to shame but if you are expecting to see a proper show then you'd be left disappointed.

The only other channel that could make it onto our EPG would be eurotic tv which would offer the other channels serious competition but beware this channel is only mildly stronger than the ones we've already got.

I think the most notable exceptions would actually come in the form of the encrypted channels. As it stands none of the current channels are allowed to show hardcore porn, in the events of these channels being available then it would certainly make for interesting challenges coming from our lot.

(05-10-2014 19:46 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  Block if you have a look at my uploads in the other channels section part of the forum you will see my recent uploads from Babestation24 which is the German equivalent and let me tell you it's nothing special to write home about...

The free continental babe channels died a death after the EU rule forcing separation of advertising and editorial for much the same reason rules were tightened for UK channels - there is less tolerance of sex in ads.

Also I have a theory that the wider availability of porn/sexual content in Europe means there is less demand for babe channels. Family supermarkets sell hardcore porn. TV drama can be more explicit.

The other big factor, that Scottishbloke identified, is the widespread availability of encrypted hardcore porn. Unlike the UK the big broadcasters are involved, not niche porn operators. Its as if ITV, Sky and BT ran erotic channels.

Not to mention petrol stations too. When I was on my European travels a few months ago I happened to walk into one of the stations and to my surprise I seen hardcore porn dvd's right at the very front. I never did have the ball's to pick it up and buy it.

Moving on, money talks, with the internet more or less being exactly the same throughout the whole of Europe it was always inevitable that some sort of mass European Satellite could be on the agenda.

Yes we the punters might see a bit more FTA erotic entrainment but the real winners in all of this will be the Murdoch Empire themselves. SKY stands to make billions now as the main selling point will ofcourse be the sports channels.

SKY have also sent out a clear message to the rest of it's competitors. Their closest rival Virgin Media is going to have to have to come up with something just as good very quickly as SKY looks now to dominate the whole of Europe.

Also its worth mentioning that all the SKY boxes will have to be updated to deal with the new influx of channels. I still think that cards will be the way forward, this will effectively mean that you will only be able to view the BBC Channels with a UK card which will also bring upon it coughing up money each year for a TV Licence. This will boost the BBC's wealth substantially. It's all about money and profit.

Personally, I don't see any reason to suppose that this merger will result in all the european channels becoming available here.
Murdoch is already the biggest shareholder in Sky UK, majority shareholder in Sky Germany, and outright owner of Sky Italy. This is more of a strategic manoeuvre to consolidate the businesses and give Sky a proper foothold in those euro markets. It is generally considered that the UK pay tv market is pretty much saturated and with BT bursting on the scene recently, it is more competitive than ever to get those customers. Germany and Italy are seen as fairly fresh areas, with room for growth, i.e. plenty of money to be pulled in, which Sky can get its fair share of with its experience from the UK market.
In other words, the money is to be made from expanding in Germany and Italy, there is little if anything to be gained from attempting to broadcast the european channels into the UK. Also, the deal is being structured in such a way as to avoid any possibility of Ofcom being able to get involved and possibly block the deal, as happened previously when Murdoch attempted to regain complete control of BSkyB. If they are being careful to sidestep the regulator now, it seems unlikely they would risk antagonising them later by showing a few 'risky' channels to a minority audience.

One rather peculiar consequence of this comes from Murdochs ex son-in-law. He is a shareholder at both Sky UK and Sky Germany. Apparently as a UK shareholder he will support this deal, but as a German investor he will oppose it! Figure that one out.

The takeover of Sky UK was halted by the phone hacking scandal, not Ofcom. Two (three?) years on and Joe Public doesnt give a toss. There could be easy money in selling selected channels cross border. Not outright porn, but mainstream channels with a few interesting shows - that doesnt constitute grounds to ban a channel, particularly if it is a well established European channel rather than a fake foreign channel with no established European audience. Ofcom cant haul the channel over the coals without attacking its EU opposite numbers.

Since the German and Italian content would be paid for by its domestic audience, the marginal cost of transmitting from 28 degrees (to the UK) would be almost zero, doubly so for archive content. That sounds like a good deal for shareholders.

Another interesting twist on this I saw somewhere. In America, Murdoch (through Fox) recently withdrew on a bid to buy Time Warner. Many believe this was a strategic withdrawal, and the deal is far from over. Time Warner is primarily concerned with producing content rather than broadcasting it, and some believe that is where Murdoch sees the future lying. This bid to unite the Sky companies is then seen as an attempt to create a more saleable package that will then be offloaded, and Vodafone have been mentioned as suitors.
I had word from an insider nearly a year ago that Vodafone were planning to buy Virgin Media. That deal hasn't materialised yet, so it's feasible Voda could be open to alternatives and a Sky euro would kinda fit with them as they already trade in those countries.

No doubt all will be revealed in due course.

I agree with eccles that it would make commercial sense for all the companies to share the same satellite. Subscriptions in SKY Deutschland and SKY Italia are at an alltime low and so long as some kind of card sharing policy is in place then ofcom really wouldn't have any grounds to oppose it.

Alternatively all the European Channels would be bundled together or put into groups of each origin and you could only receive them with an added subscription cost.

I'd also imagine that anybody looking for some of the FTA German channels for example would probably be able to search for them using the Add Channels option which could then be added to the other channels.

I suspect irrespective of what happens or doesn't I do think that we are going to see a more Pan European choice of programming in the coming months. With a merger such as this it's inevitable.

I love the idea of extra European channels being available on the UK Sky feed, but will that be economically viable for Sky? The UK satellite cluster at 28.2E only carries UK content, so the Euro channels would have to be simulcast on the UK satellites, which presumably would not be cheap.

(07-10-2014 18:15 )Digital Dave Wrote:  I love the idea of extra European channels being available on the UK Sky feed, but will that be economically viable for Sky? The UK satellite cluster at 28.2E only carries UK content, so the Euro channels would have to be simulcast on the UK satellites, which presumably would not be cheap.

Also, I don't know anything about the technicalities, but is there a limit on the number of channels the satellite can physically broadcast?
If there are limits, either financial or technical (or both), it seems likely that the porn channels would be pretty low on the priority list for being broadcast here, no doubt there are things like sport channels that would attract advertising revenue which would be far more lucrative to be shared.