ntl PPV now for digital customers only

irl2468

I have been told that ntl is no longer offering pay-per-view events on their analogue service. All pay-per-views going forward will be offered only on the digital platform.

I wonder if the number of people buying PPV matches decreases sharply over the first two months of the Premiership and this policy gets revisited?


<Somewhat Off-Topic Rant>

I plan on writing to ntl as an analogue customer, as I have purchased PPV events in the past and want to do so in the future. However, I also live in an area which has no digital service available (and I don't want it either). The phrase 'rock and a hard place' comes to mind.

The address hasn't changed - it's listed at the Contact Us site.

If anyone has any info on whether I should still be writing to Marketing Director Mark Mohan (as suggested on the Bring Back Eurosport website), I would appreciate your posting a confirmation. Writing to the MD is a possibility, but I want to try and get a response from the person who probably made this decision.

I hope I get a response like this!

Your 2200 signatures are a drop in the ocean when we are talking about 375,000 households (circa I million people) availing of our service. In any case petitions would not be a driver for our decision making - we all know that people sign these things 'just for a laugh' or 'because my mate asked me to'. - What ntl say

</Somewhat Off-Topic Rant>

I don't know if this is a ComReg issue yet, as I heard this second-hand and haven't been able to confirm it with the salespeople at 1800 234 234. Maybe ordering the first football match listed at their PPV site would force the issue, because how would they sell the match to me if I'm on analogue? I will let you know how it goes.

Anyone else writing in?

And yes, it's a slow day at work.

icdg

COMREG won't be able to help I'm afraid. All they regulate is the Basic TV pack. Additional services such as PPV are pretty much the operator's decision on whether or not to provide. NTL has already taken the decision to discontinue Sky Sports and Sky Movies as soon as practical on the analogue service, and to discontinue the entire analogue MMDS service next year.

As you can see at http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/tv.html , the basic TV package is now the only analogue package being marketed. All premium services are being moved to digital.

The only services a cable operator must provide are a basic analogue television service carrying at least RTE ONE, N2, TV3, and TG4, and if they are licenced under the 1999 regulations (only NTL, Chorus, and Casey Cablevision), a digital television service carrying the above channels plus any digital services offered by RTE, Telefis na Gaelige (when it is set up), and the BCI analogue television programme contractor (ie TV3). An MMDS operator need only provide services by TV3. Those are the rules.

celticfc

irl2468 ,

I can see why you are annoyed. However, NTL did announce (many months ago) that they were to phase out all analogue premium services including Sky Sports, Sky Movies & PPV & to only have their basic 15 channels available.

I don't see NTL losing too many PPV match customers (most will go digital)

a bientot

CABLE PRICE CONTROLS
Comreg has no further control over the price of the basic 15 channel cable service. The second last price increase of 38% granted by the ODTR is to be seen as an ongoing charge subsidy to be paid by all 375,000 basic subscribers in order to develop the digital service. Let us not mince words on this: it is simply to help the 25,000 pay for their extra go-digital 60 channels.

In other words whether you are prepared to pay the extra 12 euro or not you still have to pay for your fellow tv viewers enjoyment to the tune of around 60 euro a year.
..........and the Sunday Tribune (3 August 2003) had the cheek to inform us that our cable service was the cheapest in Europe with the best choice.
The latest increase of around 15% did not require the agreement of Madam Doyle and her colleagues.

PAY PER VIEW
CNBC viewers have been mucked about for far too long as they found their stockmarket report programmes cut to pieces every time ntl put out one of their pay per view sports progs. ntl claim that their telephone lines were regularly jammed by thousands of indignant customers and this prevented them selling their late night programmes to the willing punters. By moving the pay per views all CNBC viewers can watch their favourites without hassle and they'll never be forced to go-digital with ntl.
ntl do 'look out' for their customers, now, don't they?